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.V 






CELEBRATION 



TAMMANY HALL, 



NINETY-FOURTH ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE DECLARATION OF 

American Independence 

BY THE 

Tammany Society, 

OR COLUMBIAN ORDER, 

Monday, July 4th, 1870. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE TAMMANY SOCIETY. 



NEW YORK : 

THE NEW YORK PRINTING COMPANY, 8i, 83 & 85 CENTRE STREET. 

1870. 






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51239 




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TAMMANY HALI,, NEW YORK, JUNE 15, 1870. 
lAR SIR : 

The Tammany Society or Columbian Order will, as is its yearly custom, celebrate the coming Fourth of July. You are respectfully 
ated to meet with them. 

Niiiety-four years ago, on the Fourth of July, the American people came to the resolve to be independent of all authority save their own, 
d l(i be thenceforward protectors of their own interests, rights, and liberties. They did this in order to secure to everj' citizen civil liberty, 
licli the motto of this Society proclaims to be the Glory of Man. Every event connected with the establishment of our independent gov- 
iniLiit indicates in the men of those days great devotion to civil liberty, and great intelligence in reference to the safeguards necessary to 
m.nntenance. Our forms of government, State and Federal, recognized no privileged classes ; their aim was to benefit the whole people ; 
d their theory, that the People is King. This noble faoric of government is not a hundred years old, and yet, within a few years, thoughtful 
in have been heard to express their fears that the day of its ruin was close at hand. 

A terriiic civil war was seized upon by the party in power— a party many of whose leaders are of a school of politics which never had faith 

poiHilar freedom— as a pretext for administering the government through arbitrary force, instead of calling forth, by a benign regard to the 

hts iif all, the cheerful general obedience to law on which the founders of the Republic relied. The rights with which the Creator has 

'fested man — especially the sacred right of a man to personal freedom, so long as he violates no law— were treated with scorn by unscrupu- 

en whom the accidents of a great war had elevated to high place. The excuse of necessity— a plea which is resorted to only by those 

10 h.ive no real excuse for their acts —was absurdly offered ft>r outrages which were proved bj' subsequent events to have been wholly unne- 

ssary. AH this could not have happened, even under the exigencies of a great civil war, if the power had been in the hands of men accus- 

ned to govern, and of men who knew how to trust the patriotism of the people. It was simple cowardice ,ind timidity, resulting from a lack 

faith in the people, which impelled those in power to outiages upon private rights, upon personal freedom, and upon the Constitution, tend- 

; ti h'stioy the consistency and stability of our free government. The civil war ended five years ago, and yet the party in power are incapa- 

' N tcignizing the necessity of resorting at once to the established principles and practices of American government, if we would preserve 

II rtios of the people. The entire South is without a stable civil government. State officers, fully recognized one year, are the next year 

liji ti_d to arbitrary control by military force. If the citizens of the Southern States, or any of them, deserved punishment for rebellion 

l^aiiist the General Government, that punishment should ha^ve been indicted immediately upon the close of the war ; and whatever punish- 

'jjnt was wise and proper having been administered, the restoration of the old form of government all over the countrj' should have been 

onipt and complete. Both force and fraud are now applied to elections in the Southern States in order to return to Congress men who do not 

' prt"ient the people ; so as to continue, at all hazards, the present party in their power at the seat of government. Not content with destroy- 

I J the freedom of elections at the South, Congress has this session enacted a law, the purpose of which is to control elections in the North by 

:e application of terror and fraud. This law contains the monstrous provision that the President may use the Army and the Navy to ad- 

inistera Congressional election law among the people, when voting for State as well as Federal officers. In no government that pretends 

I be free is the army allowed to overawe by its presence, the votes of the people. 

This is not the old form of government, so dear to all true Americans. Unless the tendency to despotic measures can be arrested, very 
leedily, the close of the first century of our country's existence may witness the end of free government here. 

I 1 here is hope of better things. Recent elections give cheering signs that the people mean to protect themselves. All questions connected 
nth the late civil war are properly at an end — the war has settled them. We have now one great task to perform ; to wit, to re-establish 
llonii'tly, in all its completeness, "the old government. Connecticut, New Jersey, California, Oregon, and New York have spoken emphati- 
lly Uur own State government has been fully in the hands of our party for only a few months ; yet in the late judicial election the Demo- 
.itK State Administration was endorsed in the first year of its power by a popular majority of nearly a hundred thousand. 

The contrast between the feeble inaction of the Federal Government and the practical reforms effected by the Democratic Administration 

1 this State is marked. The Federal Administration has been for five years charged with the pressing duty of restoring the harmonious and 

'osperous condition of public affairs to which we were accustomed before the war. It has accomplished nothing. The work of so-called 

jconstruction is still unfinished ; the restoration of the Union incomplete. The war taxes are undiminished. A tariff which ignores revenue, 

Iliich cripples our commerce, and makes many of the necessities and comforts of life oppressively dear, is left in full force for the profit of a 

kv greedy men. The currency is still unsound. The credit of the country is still impaired. The power and dignity of our country receives 

arcely so much recognition among foreign nations as it did when we were crippled and hampered by the intestine difficulties of our civil war. 

lUhird-rate power feels no dread, even within the American hemisphere, in dealing cruelly with our citizens. Bad faith is charged upon us 

rali.mdnning a contract made for the transfer to us of certain territory in the West Indies, because an opportunity has since offered to obtain 

(hei territory with better chances for private jobbery. The present Congress has been in session now seven months, and has consumed the 

jiK in fruitless talk, having passed no measures of a general nature except a law for injproper interference with the freedom of elections, 

i M '.giving away an enormous quantity of the public lands to railroad speculators and jobbers. In addition to these, they had partially 

i ' 1,1 scheme to discourage immigration into the country, and so to cut off one of the chief sources of our growth in wealth and power, by 

i' : it a matter of great cost and difficulty for the emigrant to become naturalized, and thus to assume, as he should do, the duties and the 

■b . '( .1 citizen. 

1 the other hand, the Democratic party came into full power in this State, for the first time in many years, on the first of January last, 
short session of the Legislature, the false and unconstitutional system of municipal government, established by our opponents in the 
Uy "f their power, has been swept away, and the rights of communities to local self-government have been recognized and re-established all 
^er the State. The great evil of special legislation has been checked. The Registry Law, so oppressive to the rural districts, has been 
oohshed. The management of the canals has been reformed, so that hereafter they will be administered for their true purpose of affording 
the grain-growers of the Western States cheap transportation to great markets, and to our own people abundant supplies of cheap food, 
he stain of repudiation has been wiped away from our record, and the State of New York again pays in gold coin the debts she promised to 
ly in gold. In a hundred days of Democratic administration the chief evils which had grown up under the long and unwise rule of our 
|)ponenls in the affairs of this State were cutoff; and the people have a sense of relief At the close of the Legislative session the Demo- 
atic party nominated a ticket for Jud^.'S of the Court of last resort, which was admitted on all hands to be superior, in the quality of the 
len composing it, to any Court that has been known in the State for a quarter of a century. This ticket was elected by an overwhelming 
ppular vote, and the new Court of Appeals of this State is at least equal in all respects, whether for the learning, the abilty, or the integrity 
■ its members, to the highest Court in the land. 

There is, therefore, cheering ground for hope of better things. The people will see, by the success of our efforts towards good government 
, this State, what the experience of ninety years in the general politics of the country has proved — that the Democratic party alone, of the 
I/O parties, knows how to govern. 

Let us, then, celebrate this year, the birthday of the United States, confident that there is at hand a restoration in all its completeness of 
lir good old government, under which the people and the States may again enjoy their rights. 

We ask you, therefore, to meet with us on this occasion in the Great Wigwam, and aid in keeping alive the patriot flame which always 
urns bright in the Council Chamber. 

Believing that you sympathize with these ideas (and many others of momentous National Importance which they imply), we cordially 
^vite you to meet with us at Tammany Hall, in F'ourteenth Street, near Union Square, in the City of New York, on the 4th day of July, at 
f> A.M., to participate in the ceremonies of the Tammany Society. 



Sachem A. OAKEY HALL, [ 

MATTHEW T. BRENNAN, 
ISAAC BELL, 
JOSEPH DOWLING, 

HENRY VANDEWATER, Treas 



WILSON SMALL, Secretary. 



Sachem PETER B. SWEENY, 
EMANUEL B. HART, 
DOUGLAS TAYLOR, 
JOHN J. BRADLEY, 
SAMUEL B. GARVIN, 



Sachem RICHARD B. CONNOLLY, 
CHARLES G. CORNELL, 
NATHANIEL JARVIS, Jr., 
JAMES B. NICHOLSON. 



GEORGE W. ROOME, Sas-a>^ 



STEPHEN C. DURYEA, IViskinskie. 

WILLIAM M. TWEED, Grand Sachem. 
JAMES WATSON, Scribe of the Coimcil. 



ESQ. 



Please address your answer to WILLIAM M. TWEED, Cor. Broadway and Park Place, New York. 



EIGHTY-SECOND CELEBRATION 

TAMMANY SOCIETY, 

OR COLUMBIAN ORDER. 



dTivil pbfvty the mm^ of Pan/' 




CELEBRATION OF THE NINETY-FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF 
AMERICAN INDEl^ENDENCE. 

MONDAY, JULY 4th, 1870. 

in accordance with their unvarying; custom, tlie Brothers of the Taminany Society will meet 
to celebrate the National Birthday according to the manner prescribed by the Constitution of tlic 
Society. 

At half-past nine on Monday, July 4, 1870, the Sachems, Braves and Warriors will assemble 
for the transaction of business in the Council Chamber of the Great AV'igwam, 

At ten, A. M., the doors of the Great Hall will be thrown open for the admission of guests 
and friends of the Society, when the follcwing; Order of Exercises will be held : 

NATIONAI. AIRS SEVENTH REGIMENT BAND. 

ADDRESS OF WELCOME GRAND SACHEM TWEED. 

"STANDARD OF FREEDOM." Siiii^ by WM. H. DAVIS, ESQ. 

READING DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 

BY BR0TH1:R EDMUND RANDOLPH ROBINSON. 

.MUSIC BAND. 

I'HE LONG TALK, by the Democratic Wurrior frotii the Pacific, 

HON. EUGENE CASSERLY. 

MUSIC BAND. 

ODE, . . BY THE HON. JOHN G. SAXE. 

SHORT 'H KXJK., from SACHEMS AND BRAVES, 

INCLUDING 

HON. JOHN T. HOFFMAN, HON. S. S. COX, HON. lAMES A. BAYARD, 

HON. RICHARD O'GORMAN. &c., &c. 

FINALE, STAR-SPAN(;LED BANNER. Sunz by .... WM. J. HILL, ESQ. 

Sachem PETER B. SWEENY, Sachem SAMUEL B. GARVIN, 

RICHARD B. CONNOLLY, " MATTHEW T. BRENNAN, 

EMANUEL B. HART, " CHARLES G. CORNELL, 

JOHN J. BRADLEY, " A. OAKEY HALL, 

ISAAC BELL, " JOSEPH DOWLINC, 

DOUGLAS TAYLOR, •• NATHANIEL JARVIS, JR., 

Sachem JAMES B. NICHOLSON, Father 0/ the Council. 

Grand Sachem. 
WILSON SMALL, Secretary ; HENRY VANDEWATER, Treasurer ; JAMES WATSON, 
Scribe ; GEORGE W. ROOME, Sagamore; S. C. DURYEA, IViskinskie. 

SPECIAL COMIVIITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS: 

Grand Sachem W. M. TWEED; Sachem A. OAKEY HALI, ; Sachem DOUGLAS TAYLOR; 
Father of the Council, JAMES B. NICHOLSON. 



Albert Cardozo, 
John M. Barbour, 
Manton Marble, 
Charles Roonie, 
James M. Sweeity, 
John M. Carnochan, 
Charles H. Van Brunt, 
Wilson G. Hunt, 
August Belmont, 
Thomas C. Fields, 
Walter Roche, 
James H. Ingersoll, 
Nelson J. Waterbury, 
John Richardson, 
Oswald Ottendurfer, 
\Vni. M. Tweed, |r., 
F.d. J. Shandley,' 
Thomas J. Creamer, 
Henry Alker, 
Richard Schell, 
William H. Leonard, 
Richard O Gorman, 



COMIVIITTEE OF MEMBERS 

William Schirme 
Thomas Dunlan, 



John Hartly, 
Henry Storms, 
John Brice, 
Benjamin P. Fairch 
William Dodge, 
Forbes Holland, 
Samuel J. Tilden, 
William E. Curtis, 
Elbirt A. Woodwat 
Aujj^ustus Schell, 
Morgan Jones, 
John R. Bradv, 
Hugh Smith, ' 
Michael Connolly, 
James L. Miller, 
John K. Hackett, 
A. S. Sallivan, 
Andrew J. Garvey, 
Thomas Com.an, 
De Witt Van Buren 
Thomas J. Burr, 



Willi; 



ins L. Monell, 
m II. King, 
Bernard Smyth, 
Jerome Buck, 
Robert C. Hutchings, 
Casper C. Childs, 
Thomas H. Landon, 
John Brown, 
Hiram Calkins, 
John Scott, 
John Jourdan, 
Eugene Durnin, 
David V. Freeman, 
John Garvey, 
John Nesbit, 
Charles P. Daly, 
Algernon S. Jarvis, 
A. J. Vanderjiocl, 
Smith Ely, Jr., 
Nelson Taylor, 
Henry W. Genet, 
George G. Barnard, 
William Hitchman, 



Patrick H. Keenan, 
Gerson N. Herman, 
William C. Cover, 
Edward Schell, 
William L. Ely, 
James F. Pierce, 
P. J. Joachimsen, 
Timothy Brennan, 
Peter Tnainor, 
Joel O. Stevens, 
Lawrence Clancy, 
Edward Sanfor^l, 
William C. O'Brien, 
Alexander Frear, 
Cornelius Corson, 
John Hayes, 
Terence Farley, 
Malcolm Campbell. 
Isaac Robinson, 
A. J. Fullerton, 
A. B. Rollins, 
J. Y. Savage, Jr. 



A. OAKEV HALL, Cluunuait. 



Tammany Society. 



EIGHTY-SECOND CELEBRATION. 



Independence Day was clear, cool, and auspi- 
cious. The throngs in and around Tammany Hall 
so early as half-past nine, reminded of those which 
besieged it upon occasion of the National Conven- 
tion. Not in many years before had so many mem- 
bers of the Columbian Order presented themselves 
on the platform with regalia. The roll of attending 
Sachems was full, with only the exception of Sachem 
Peter B. Sweeny, who is absent in Europe recruit- 
ing from severe mental labors in behalf of political 
friends during the past winter. 

Perhaps the unusual attendance and enthusiasm 
was due to the feeling that the people ought, by 



6 Tammany Society. 

fu]] attendance, to protest against that insult to the 
national sentiment, which was already announced 
in the morning gazettes, of a Congressional ses- 
sion throughout the time-honored Holiday, at 
which Radicals were expected to persecute adopt- 
ed citizens and the middling classes by means-of 
oppressive legislation on naturalization and tax- 
laws. 

The Committee room of the Society was decorat- 
ed with a full suit of Indian dress and fighting 
equipments, that had been recently collected and 
presented by Sachem Oakey Hall. They were ap- 
propriately hung and descriptively labelled in a fine 
walnut case, which was the gift of Andrew J. Garvey, 
Esq., one of the enthusiastic Braves. 

After half an hour had been spent in the Com- 
mittee room by several hundred Brothers of Colum- 
bian Order — some admiring and chatting over the 
paraphernalia, as splendid as ever the original 
Pennsylvania warriors of the Tammany tribe wore, 
and others receiving the appropriate decorations — 
Grand Sachem Tweed grasped his calumet and 
tomahawk, and marshalled the Sachems and Braves 
into procession for the Grand Hall. 

Entering this, the spectacle presented was such 
as to call forth spontaneous approval. Every con- 
ceivable kind of patriotic decoration abounded. 



Celebration, 1870. 7 

The national colors were blended in infinite kalei- 
doscopal combinations. The banner and escutcheon 
of every State were displayed. Old men and 
youngsters massed themselves together " to behold 
the joyous sight." The wives and daughters of 
time-honored members occupied the front seats; 
and as the long and distinguished procession filed 
in upon the platform, cheer upon cheer rent the 
welkin, only to be drowned by soul-inspiriting na- 
tional airs as played by the celebrated Grafulla 
Band. 

To the enthusiastic and experienced interest of 
Sachem Douglas Taylor, and to the practised skill 
and many-times approved taste of Marshal Garvey, 
must be awarded the full praise for the complete- 
ness of arrangement and decoration. 

Mr. William H. Davis, of New York, sang with 
intense effect the song of" The Standard of Free- 
dom," with music by J. R. Thomas. The enthu- 
siasm inspired by this song was electrical, burst- 
ing forth again and again, until the house, from 
floor to dome, resounded with the acclamations of 
applause. If the Democracy of the city, State, 
and Union will rally about the Standard of Free- 
dom as enthusiastically as did the Tammany De- 
mocracy of New York on the national holida}^, 
victofy will perch upon our banners from the 



S Tammany Society, 

Atlantic to " wliere rolls the Oregon,'' and not only 
at the State, but the national elections. 

Mr. Tweed (when the enthusiasm subsided, and 
keeping his hat on as is the usage for the Grand 
Sachem) called the vast assemblage to order, and 
with coolness, but delighting modesty, welcomed 
brothers and guests as follows: — 



Friends and Fellow-Citizens, and Brother 
Democrats : — We are pleased to-day to see that 
the old interest of times past has been manifested 
by you for the words of wisdom which may fall 
from the lips of our brothers to-day, to be by you 
conveyed to your associates. We consider this 
bright auspicious day as forerunner of another 
when the great Democratic party, through which 
alone this great country can be properly recon- 
structed, shall again resume sway, and place us in 
the condition of constitutional prosperity we were 
in before the late civil war. (Applause.) I trust 
that the words that will be said here to-day b}^ 
those who have prepared themselves for the occa- 
sion, will be duly pondered. We believe that the 
doctrines enunciated on this platform will be such 
as to warm the heart of every true friend of his 
country and every Democrat in the world. Broth- 
ers, as there will be much good talk by the warriors 
and braves, I will spare you the infliction of a 
speech from me, except these welcoming words tc 



Celebration, 1870. 9 

the Wigwam, and tell you how deeply we all feel 
the enthusiasm you have manifested by your at- 
tendance here to-day. 

At the conclusion of the Grand Sachem's wel- 
come the Declaration of Independence was read 
by Edmund Randolph Robinson, grand-nephew of 
Thomas Jefferson, and a lineal descendant of the 
patriot Peyton Randolph, and who is a son-in-law 
of John Jay, the Republican Minister at Vienna. 
The Declaration was read with that fervor and ap- 
preciative emphasis which one would expect from 
a gentleman who had been lineally impressed with 
the historical incidents of the great document. 
The book which he used was one formerly in the 
possession of President Jefferson. As he would 
in reading pronounce sentences that suggested 
recent outrages of a kindred character by General 
Grant and Congress, the enthusiasm of the audi- 
ence rose to concert pitch. Democrats in 1870 
are as quick to proclaim against oppression as 
were those of 1776. 

After the reading of the Declaration, Mr. Tweed 
said: The long talk will now be made by our dis- 
tino^uished brother from California, but a native of 
our city, a Senator from California— one of those 
who have battled in the United States Senate for 
the principles of true Democracy. I have the 



lO Tammany Society. 

pleasure, gentlemen, to introduce to you Hon 
Eugene Casserly. (Great applause.) 



senator casserly s oration. 

Grand Sachem and Friends of the Tammany 
Society, and Fellow-Democrats in Tammany 
Hall: Before I commence to say what I had in 
my mind to say, for I have no written speech, let 
me niake one correction for the sake of the truth 
of history. My friend the Grand Sacliem of the 
Order referred to me as a native of this city. 
I came here so young that I might claim to be a 
child of New York ; but as to being a native here, 
my friends, I know not how that could have been, 
unless, as Sir Boyle Roche said of a bird, I could 
" be in two places at once." (Great laughter.) 

We are met here to-day, in compliance with an 
ancient and honorable custom of the Columbian 
Order and of your great city of New York, to com- 
memorate the anniversary of the Declaration of 
American Independence. • Under the grave and 
momentous circumstances of the present we are 
met here also, my friends, to renew our vows to 
the Constitution which sanctioned and applied in 
the government of the United States the general 
principles announced in the Declaration so many 
years before. To-day is one of those memorial 
days which belong to no one country, to no 
one nation, to no one race — which are the com- 
mon property of humanity — one of those days 



Celebration, 1870. 11 

vv'liich lift us out of ourselves and surround us 
with associations higher and better than those 
of our daily life. It is a day for retrospection of the 
past ; for grave consideration of the present ; for a 
glance into the future. I know of no place more 
fitted for such a commemoration than the city of 
New York in the State of New York. I know 
of no hall within the broad borders of this ofreat 
commonwealth more proper for this meeting than 
the hall of the Brothers of Tammany. (Ap- 
plause.) Your city and State, my friends, have in 
a special degree an honorable record in connection 
with all the great events of your country's history, 
from the commencement of the contest which re- 
sulted in independence down to the present mo- 
ment. I said jj/<5;/r city and State. For much the 
greater part of my life they were also mine; and I 
come here to-day at the summons of the Society to 
pay my tribute of affection and of gratitude, not 
only to the great men who laid the foundations of 
American liberty, but specially also to the services 
rendered to the country by New York, both city 
and State, in every juncture of our history. I 
shall speak with no regret but one — that what I 
have to say will not be more worthy of the occa- 
sion. Duties, arduous and unremitting, in the 
place to which California has advanced me, for- 
bade me since I first heard your call, to make any 
preparation beyond the collection of the necessary 
historical facts. I throw myself upon your in- 
dulgence as a child of your city, as one who has 



12 Tammany Society. 

you in his earliest recollections. I ask you to 
allow for my shortcomings in the fulness of your 
patriotism and of your good-will. 

Let us begin by turning back the pages of our 
history, there to revive recollections that will 
satisfy the men of to-day, as the men of other days 
were satisfied, of the great part played in the junc- 
tures of the country by New York, in city and 
State, and, in its time and place, by the Order in 
whose Hall we are to-day. Thus shall we see, and 
shall give to all others to see, that, by all the memo- 
ries and services of the past, your city and State 
are doubly bound to stand, as they stood of old, 
firm and unmoved in the cause of the Constitution 
of the United States and the true Union of the 
United States; in the cause of the just and equal 
rights of the States ; in the cause of the rights of 
the people against privilege in every shape, against 
monopoly in every form ; in a word, the cause of 
the ancient Democracy of the country. (Ap- 
plause.) When on a bright auspicious morning 
like this we meet to celebrate the Fourth of July, 
little do we think what clouds hung lowering over 
the fortunes of the good, true, and brave men who 
first put their hands to the work of American 
freedom. Men are men always ; and then, as now, 
there were men who were weak, men who were 
time-serving, men who were over-cautious. Among 
the masses of the people the sentiment was gene- 
rally right, as it is apt to be in every great trial 
of the country; but it needed some bold, decisive 



Celebration, 1870. 13 

movement to direct and fix opinion, and to cast the 
die beyond recall. I speak now of that time of 
trial during the few months of 1776 that preceded 
the Declaration. New York was not then, as she 
is to-day, the greatest of the States. She was 
merely the fourth or fifth in rank ; but her posi- 
tion — her geographical position — made her the 
most important. She faced the Atlantic, and she 
rested upon Canada. She had it in her power 
to make a territorial union impossible. There 
might have been a union in law ; but, so long as 
New York held out. New England would have 
been separated from the rest of the Union by a 
foreign territory. Consequently her movements 
had an influence far beyond that which otherwise 
would have belonged to them, considering her 
only in her rank among the States. Observe, also, 
that her geographical position, while it gave her the 
utmost political consequence, made her the most 
exposed of the States, both on her seaboard and 
her Canada frontier. In March, 1776, the British 
evacuated Boston, and, of necessity, they were 
obliged to supply its place by some other great sea- 
port. That other was New York. They had fallen 
back upon Halifax, as it was understood, with the 
intention there to receive re-enforcements and to 
make a descent upon New York, then daily expected. 
The State was devoted to commerce, and she under- 
stood perfectly well that independence — American 
independence — for her meant blockade of her only 
port and the destruction of all her commerce ; meant 



14 Tammany Society. 

the overthrow, for an indefinite time, of her ma- 
terial interests.- Behind her, in the country be- 
yond the Canada line, held by the British foe, 
were the hostile Indians ready to be let loose upon 
her territory, which she could not defend. She 
might well have paused in the face of these 
startling dangers. The reports of the movements 
of the British naval forces from Halifax kept the 
country in constant alarm. As often as it was 
announced that they were about to appear off a 
particular harbor, the scanty army of Washington, 
half armed, half clad, was hurried to the defence 
of the place. In this city soldiers were con- 
stantly moving in and out. The whole aspect of 
the community was one of grave and ceaseless 
anxiety. In a newspaper of the time a refined 
and accomplished woman writes a letter, in which, 
speaking of herself and of the ladies of the officers 
of the army — General Washington's wife among 
the rest — she says: " We don't dare stir out. We 
live shut up like nuns in a nunnery." Meanwhile 
the city was filled with the most alarming rumors. 
There was, as you well know, a very strong element 
of loyalists, as they were then called, in this city, 
and it was generally believed that a plot had been 
laid by them to seize the person of General Wash- 
ington himself at his quarters among the green 
fields at Richmond Hill — in the heart of the city 
when I was a boy, but then a remote and isolated 
district Every good citizen was doing his best 
for the cause. One day Nathaniel Greene, of 



Celebration, 1870. 13 

Rhode Island — thought by many to be hardly 
second even to Washington — saw, where is now 
your City Hall Park, a young man, not twenty 
years of age, drilling a company of artillery raised 
mainly or wholly by himself Struck by the con- 
trast between the slight and youthful figure and the 
skill he showed in the drilling of his company, 
General Greene stopped and spoke to him. That 
company was the one provincial artillery company 
of General Washington's army, and its young cap- 
tain was Alexander Hamilton. (Applause.) Alex- 
ander Hamilton was one of those sons of another 
soil whom this city then, as she has so often done 
since, took to her breast and loved and tenderly 
raised as though he had been the dearest son of 
her own. (Applause.) It was in the midst of such 
dangers as I have described, and at the last, with a 
powerful British fleet and a great army, computed 
by none at less tlian thirty thousand men, almost 
at hand, that New York had to make her choice. 
She made it boldly and she made it well. As she 
was, from within and without, the most exposed of 
the States, having most to lose from war, it is a 
proud thing for New York to be able to say — it is 
a proud thing for any one who loves her to be able 
to remember that, beset by all these dangers though 
she was, she was still the first of the great central 
colonies to take an affirmative stand for American 
independence. (Applause.j ^It is true that in May, 
1776, Virginia, to her inmiortal honor, first of all 
the colonies, instructed her delegates in Congress 



1 6 Tammany Society. 

for independence ; but it is also true that on June 
1 1 of the same year New York was the first of 
the great central colonies to follow the example 
through her government, and thus virtually to 
^decide the great question of independenceTjy/ By 
Ithis course of hers, and her unanimity in it, an 
impetus was given to the American cause which 
could not be checked. Neither then nor at any 
other time in the Revolutionary period was New 
York wanting in patriotic devotion. All the testi- 
mony of the day agrees as to her, — that there 
never was a moment in the darkest of hours when 
the people of New York were not ready to sacri- 
fice their city, provided the cause of American 
freedom and independence demanded so great a 
sacrifice. (Applause.) What was true then, his- 
tory shows, has always been true since. New 
York is as ready to-day as she ever was, if needs 
be, to sacrifice herself for the same great cause. 
(Prolonged applause.) Nowhere was the Declara- 
tion received with more enthusiasm, more tumultu- 
ous joy than in this city. It was agreed to on the 
4th of July, and on the 9th of July, of a still sum- 
mer evening, it was read by the order of Washing- 
ton to his little army stationed near the site of 
the present Chambers street, then in the fields. It 
was read at the head of each brigade, and New 
York, then as now, spontaneous, impulsive, enthu- 
siastic, was beside herself with patriotic excite- 
ment. Her multitudes listened to the declaration, 
and then in a body adjourned to the Bowling 



Celebration, 1870. 17 

Green, where there was a statue, as you well 
know — a statue of one whom they Httle loved, as 
little as he loved them ; a statue of him whom you 
have heard spoken of in the Declaration just read 
as " a tyrant" — George III. of England. (Hisses.) 
They made of that statue a votive offering to 
their new-born independence. A hundred hands 
were ready with axe and sledge to strike it 
down. Down it went, amid wavinof torches and 
the shouts of the assembled thousands — (ap- 
plause) — the head was cut off — (applause) — and 
head and body were run into bullets to be used 
in the war of independence. (Applause.) I think 
I never heard, I think you never heard, my 
friends, ^of a better use being made of the coun- 
terfeit presentment of " a tyrant." (Applause.) 
The dignity of Washington was a litde offended 
officially because some of his soldiers took part in 
these proceedings, and by an order of the day he 
reprimanded them. But I suspect that he was 
not so very much displeased, and that at breakfast 
the next morning, at Richmond Hill, when he 
talked it over with Mrs. Washington, it was with 
a stately smile upon his august features. 

In such fashion did your city first celebrate the 
Declaration of Independence. 

The next great stage in the progress of Ameri- 
can freedom and institutions was the Confederation 
for the unity of the colonies against the common 
enemy. As you are aware, it encountered much 
opposition on a variety of grounds. The most 
3 



I 8 Tammany Society. 

serious were those arising out of the pubhc lands. 
New York and Virginia, in particular, claimed, by 
royal charters, vast tracts of land extending from 
the Atlantic to what was vaguely termed in the 
deeds the " South Sea." That was the grand name 
then o-iven to the boundless waters of the Pacific, 
for the most part still shrouded in all the romance 
of mystery. 

The title to these lands was as good as any title 
could be to lands at that time. But the States 
which were not so entitled to land, especially the 
smaller States, like Delq,ware and Rhode Island, 
were vehemently opposed to any federation or union 
except upon the condition that the large States 
should give up their lands for the general benefit. 
They argued that if the war for ijidependence should 
be successful, then these lands, won from Great Bri 
tain by the efforts and sacrifices of all, should be the 
common property of all. Against this demand Vir- 
ginia remonstrated in terms equally emphatic and 
final. The difficulty seemed to be growing irre- 
concilable. Then it was that New York spoke, 
February 19, 1780. Her lands were not equal in 
extent or value to those of Virginia, but they were 
all that she had ; and the\- were by no means in- 
considerable. They were a vital hindrance in the 
way of the Union of the States, and unless they 
were given up the Union might never be accom- 
plished. In this overwhelming crisis did New York 
hold back ? Did she hesitate to give up her lands 
to the Union, for the benefit of all the States which 



Celebration. 1870. 19 

should become members of the Union? No, fel- 
low-citizens ; not at all, not at all ! Cheerfully, 
nobly, at once, through her Legislature, she sur- 
rendered all her public lands to the Union of the 
States for the sake of the Union. Her example 
was electric. Maryland, which had been among 
the foremost in demanding the surrender of the 
public lands, gracefully gave up the question in 
less than a year, declaring herself willing to rely 
on the justice of the other States for her rights in 
the Western territory. In advance of the cession 
by New York, New Jersey and Delaware had al- 
ready taken the same course. Virginia reconsid- 
ered her remonstrance, and in the same month 
which first saw the States united, declared a ces- 
sion of her lands to the Confederation. Who can 
estimate what is due to the magnanimity and wis- 
dom of New York in that turning-point of our 
Revolutionary history ? 

She might have entrenched herself behind her 
parchments, behind the broad seal of the king of 
England ; she could have stood upon her rights. 
She did not. She came out from among her muni- 
ments ; she laid her parchments, her royal charters, 
on the altar of the country ; and as they disappeared 
in the sacred flame, with them disappeared the last 
obstacle in the way of the union of the States. 
(Applause.) How much all this was, is not easy to 
conceive, even thouorh we consider what vast results 
hung upon her course, and how great was the 
Republic that sprung from the Confederation then 



7.0 Tarn 112 any Society. 

tonned. But this was not all. In ceding her vacant 
lands, New York laid the foundation of the future 
land system of the United States, which, rightly 
administered, has shown itself fruitful of blessings 
to the country and to mankind. 

So the Confederation was formed ; but even so, 
not all had been accomplished that was demanded 
for the great evolution of American ideas in gov- 
ernment and civilization, in the new-born order of 
the ages. I need not recall to you the inherent 
weakness of the Confederation. It bore within 
itself of necessity the seeds of its own dissolution. 
It soon became apparent that a different organiza- 
tion of the Union was essential. The real difficulty 
was how this should be brought al^out. There were 
two parties in the country ; one party — the largest 
and the best in judgment — preferred that the exist- 
ing government of the Confederation should, to 
some extent, control the change to be made, 
— rather, I should say, should direct it. For 
undoubtedly there were serious fears entertained 
lest that a Convention called at large, and subject to 
no direction or supervision, might change the entire 
form of the government ; and there was another 
party — less in numbers, it is true, but possessing con- 
siderable ability, and great influence — which was un- 
derstood to favor such a course. Almost by accident, 
as such things hav^e been in the course of events, a 
solution was found. In the autumn of 1786 a 
Convention was in session in Annapolis, in pur- 
suance of a resolution of the State of Virginia, 



Celebration, 1870. 2 1 

"to consider the subject of commercial regulations 
bv Congress." Tliat body, upon a report made 
by one of the New York delegates, Mr. Hamilton, 
adopted a recommendation for a general Conven- 
tion, for a purpose stated in these words : " To de- 
vise such further provisions as might be necessary 
to render the Constitution of the Federal Gov- 
ernment adequate to the exigencies of the Union." 
It is true the idea of such a Convention was not 
new. In 1782 the Legislature of New York had 
recommended a Convention to form a Federal 
Constitution. The same thing was done in 1785 
by Massachusetts. Still, in the winter of 1 786-1 787, 
the plan of a Constitutional Convention, whether 
as proposed at Annapolis or otherwise, met with 
vehement opposition in Congress upon various 
grounds, but principally upon the ground that 
Congress was unwilling to surrender its power, not 
only to direct the formation of the Convention, but 
also to ratify any Constitution the Convention should 
frame. Once more New York decided the policy of 
the country ; though to do this she had first to change 
the views of Congress. On February 17, 1787, the 
New York Legislature adopted a resolution in- 
structing her members in Congress to move for an 
act recommending the States to elect delegates to a 
Convention to revise the Articles or Constitution 
of the Confederation. Four days afterwards this im- 
portant expression of New York was laid before 
Congress. As you perceive, it left open the question 
of the power to ratify the Constitution when made. 



22 Tammany Society. 

For that reason, and also because of the known 
anti-centrahzing tendencies of New York, the Con- 
gress, though it yielded the substance and called 
the Convention, did not choose to adopt the precise 
form of the New York recommendation. A reso- 
lution for a Convention, subsequently offered by 
the Massachusetts delegation, was adopted instead. 
In that the New York resolution was followed, ex- 
cept that the States and Congress were to have 
the power of ratifying any Constitution which might 
be formed. As events proved, the New York plan 
was the best, and was the most in accord with the 
genius of the people, and with the course after- 
wards pursued in ratifying the Constitution. The 
Convention once met, it was soon found that to 
attempt to amend the old Constitution was futile, 
and that a new Constitution must be made. It 
was made and transmitted to Congress, which did 
not seek to ratify it, but left it to be ratified by Con- 
ventions called by the States, according to the 
spirit of the New York plan. 

This was the third stage of progress of the States 
from the condition of British colonies to the for- 
mation of a more perfect Union, the same Union 
we now have, or ought to have — (applause) — un- 
der the C()nslitutit)n as it was adopted in 1789, 
and as it has remained practically unaltered and 
religiously observed, until within the past ten years. 
In all those three great stages of progress you see 
how potent always was the voice of New York, and 
how perfect was her devotion to the cause of the 
country. (Applause.) 




Celebration, 1870. 23 

I pass rapid]}' over the intervening events, to re-« 
min3 vou of the Prtsidential election of 1801. 
T hen , lor the first time, the two opposing ideas in"'^ 
the politics of^the country, the Federal and Demo-^ 
cratic ideas, pitted their forces against each otherr \ 
The administration of John Adams had become""" \ 
justly odious by its alien and sedition laws, and ' 
(TFhers of the like character — though not a whit 
woi'se thnn nian\' im|;<)sed on us bv Congress dur- 
ing the last ten years, and remaining yet a blot on 
your statute books. 

Such laws, then or now, are but manifestations 
of the evil spirit of the party which enacts them. 
^'^^ X^QUg h more than half a century of time divides 
the Federalism of iSoi from IBefnTsnamed '' Re- J 
publi can ism " of lo-day, the evil spirit animating 
them i> one and the same. It is the spirit of 
consolidation of political powers, whether granted 
toTKe United States or reserved to the several States, 
with th e lea st possible regard for the Constitution, 
in one great central government at Washington. 
" This, more than any other, is the characteristic 
of every party which, under whatever name, for 
s eventy~vears has arr ayed itself against the Demo- 
cratic party of the country. At the date of the 
i>reat contest of 1801, such a {government had 
long been in the aspirations, public or private, of 
too many of the leaders of Federalism, who, as if ^ ^ 
hungering after the flesh-pots of Egypt, regarded 
the British government as the perfection of human 
wisdom, and desired nothing so much as to see the 



24 Tammany Society. 

'government of the I'niled States brought in prac- 
tice as near to it as possible. Such, however, was 
not the American idea of government, or of the 
distribution of powers as between the States and 
the Union, as understood by the mass of the Amer- 
ican people and most of the men who founded the 
government. Federalism assailed this idea, and 
with a continued ascendency, under such leaders, 
for a few more presidential terms succeeding that 
of John Adams, might have subverted it. To hold 
Federalism in check, the Democratic party came 
into existence, at first under the name of Republi- 
can, to mark sharply its antagonism to the monarchi- 
cal tendencies of the opposite partyj^^i^Its success 
over Fed eralism in i8oi__was felt to be vital by alP* 
who preferred American to British pohticarinsti- 
tutijons. ur \v ho were opposed to the centralizing ' 
theory, and believed it incompatil^le wiih tlie de- [ 
velopment or r\en the maintenance of American * \ 
constitutional government. It was the one great po- 
litical contest of our history. Great as the contest 
was, it was the proudlotof your Siali',a,s theacknow- 
ledged battle-field of the Union, loliax-e it turn upon 
her vote, and turn in triumpli. ( A]j])lau>e.) Faith- 
ful and true, when the danger was sorest, her help 
was the surest. New York overthrew the Feder- 
alism of the country in that decisive conflict.S<^ 
V,^ (Loud Applause.) '^■•'''^"""""^"^ \ 

So desperate was the struggle that the vote of 
the State depended upon the election in this city, 
and that was decided by the talents and virtues of 



Celebration, 1870. 25 

men who sat in the councils of the Tammany So- 
ciety. (Applause.) There were giants in those days, 
and they sat in Tammany Hall, though it was 
known derisively among the enemies of the people 
as "the pig-pen." 

//I hus we are able to say that it was the voice ol' 
/New Vork which decidecT The result of the Pfe^ 
Hential electio n in 180 1 (aij|)lausf) — and that "re-" 
suit, we know, dete rmined the administration of the 
government of the countrw with perhaps two in- 
termissions of tonr years each, for substantially" 
( sixty years of a progress and growth never be- 
Vbre known in history. (Great applause. Tr' 

'Eleven \car.s from the contest of iSoi bring us 
to the War of 181 2 — to another time of trial for the 
country and for the manhood of the people — anoth- 
er grave crisis, when the weight of New York was 
again greatly felt. The war opened darkly enough 
for the United States. The fleets of our hereditary 
foes rode the sea triumphant, they blockaded our 
ports, they harassed our coast everywhere. Our 
commerce was practically annihilated. There was 
a wonderful and most unnatural division at home. 
Rich and powerful States, which I shall not more 
particularly refer to, for they are in the mind of every 
man who hears me — I prefer not to say a word to 
mar the hallowed recollections of the day — leading- 
States in the Union then, were not faithful to the 
country or to themselves. In a dangerous foreign 
war they found, for the first time in our history, 
a practical opportunity for advancing a vicious 
4 



26 Tammany Society. 

doctrine of State rights, which led directly to the 
right of secession. But it was not in the State of 
New York that such a doctrine had its birth or 
found encouragement. (Applause.) Her patriotic 
Governor, Daniel D. Tompkins, strong in the love 
and confidence of all her people, hastened to this 
city for the means essential to the crisis the means 
required to call out and arm the militia, and make 
at once all other preparations for the defence of 
the State, threatened by the power of Great Britain, 
both on the Canadian frontier and upon the Atlan- 
tic. His call met a unanimous and generous re- 
sponse. (Applause.) He found the best spirit 
everywhere. Every man was ready to do what he 
could. The blood of New York was up. The 
banks and the capitalists placed their disposable 
funds in his hands ; the credit of the city was 
strained to the utmost in the good cause. Once 
again, in a grave emergency. New York came to 
the front. Then and afterwards during the war, 
she contributed largely by her support and the moral 
force of her example, to save the contest from re- 
sulting in disaster, if not in ignominy, and to make 
its ending as glorious as its opening had been 
gloomy for our young republic. (Applause.) 

Allow me still another glance into the past, 
that I may not fail to complete the record of your 
city and State in the great junctures of our his- 
tory. Coming down from the war of 1812, for 
nearly fifty years of domestic peace and wonder- 
ful progress, nearly all of them under the prin- 



Celebration, 1870. 27 

ciples of government established by the contest 
of 1 80 1, we are brought to the last and greatest 
trial of all. We are brought to 1861, the fated 
year when first the country passed into the 
fiery ordeal of one of those terrible conflicts 
in which victory is most like defeat, and the 
cypress, not the laurel, wreathes the conqueror's 
sword, stained with fraternal blood — our great civil 
war — (applause) — when the American people 
turned their hands against themselves, till the land 
was filled with new-made graves, and fully a third 
of the nation was left desolate, broken, overthrown ! 
Your city of New York, which had always been 
for the Constitution and the Union — for the Union 
created and sanctioned by the Constitution, for 
the just and equal rights of all the States in the 
Union; New York, which had never helped to 
breed the evil spirit that produced the war, which 
had done nothing to bring on the war, but had 
done everything to the last moment, by word and 
deed, by her temper and policy, by her whole 
broad, patriotic, generous example, to maintain 
peace, and restore concord ; New York found herself 
in the first months of 1861 confronted by a crisis 
new, strange, and fearful, which she had to meet, and 
felt she could meet in but one way. See what a 
moral power she showed then, and how decisive it 
was ! There were other orreat cities of wealth, in- 
fluence, and intelligence — one of them of unusual 
pretensions. They were zealous, too, in the cause. 
They met, they resolved, fervid speeches were made, 



2^ Tajnmajiy Society. 

and what came of it ? The country, as if awed by 
the consciousness of a coming calamity, stood 
aghast at the phenomenon of civil war. At last 
New York came forward ; she had her mighty 
meeting, in which she poured out her heart, and 
there, within a stone's throw of the place where I 
am now speaking, the Rubicon was passed. 

Take this historical record, poorly as I have 
given it to you to-day, take it as a whole, and who 
will deny that the city and the State, which have 
borne a part so decisive in every one of the critical 
periods of the country, are well entitled both and 
each to be heard on a day like this on the grave 
issues that concern us all ? If there are those 
within your city or elsewhere who deem it their 
duty forever to revile her as their best tribute to 
the country of which she is the great metropolis, 
and of whose energies and power she is the grand- 
est expression before the world, I am not here to 
challenge them or make defence for her. She re- 
quires no defence. She can rest on her record. 
(Applause.) History speaks for her. (Applause.) 
She does not need to sound her own praises any 
more than does Niagara or the Pacific Ocean. 
(Applause.) 

What I say is that with such a history for so 
many years, it is most fitting that in such a city of 
such a State, and in this Council Chamber, we 
should be here to-day to pay honor to the past, to 
consider the present, and prepare for the future. 
Is there not much in the condition of the country, 



Celebration, 1870. 29 

in the character of the government to which it has 
been subjected for so many years past, in the charac- 
ter of the poHcy so long enforced, -and of that which 
is foreshadowed by the party that has swayed the 
government -ever since the war began, to make us 
all pause, — to furnish food for anxious reflection ? 
I shall not recall the divisions of the warjx^l would 
they might be buried deeper than plummet ever 
sounded, out of the sight and memory of man. (Ap- 
plause.) I shall rejoice to see the day when all that 
will be remembered of that terrible struggle on 
either side, will be the good deeds done by brother 
to brother, though arrayed in hostile ranks ; the 
devotion, the valor, the manhood put forth by 
each side in that giant strife of four long years ; 
and as to which I seek not now to know what 
side possessed them in largest measure. (Applause.) 
Let what may be remembered in honor, love, affec- 
tion be remembered, but all else be sunk in the 
^darkest pools of oblivioryK(^pplause.) Passing by' 
the period of the war, and coming to the date of 
peace, now more than five years ago, let me ask 
was there ever a party that had so many opportuni- 
ties for good as the Republican party then had } 
The South was prostrated utterly ; she had fought 
it out to her last man and her last gun. Broken, 
bleeding at every pore, helpless as a babe new-born, 
she was an object to excite the sympathies, to stir 
the generous impulses of the sternest foe. The 
one thing in the world she wanted was peace. 
The one thing she did not want was strife. The 



30 Tammany Society. 

obvious duty of the Republican party, having the 
whole power, was to bind up the wounds of the 
South, to rebuild her shattered interests, to restore 
her to peace, to the Union and the country. In 
doing this paramount duty the Republicans would 
also have gained an important party advantage ; for 
they must have built up for themselves a strong 
party in the South. The dispositions of the peo- 
ple there were not in the way ; for that they were 
excellent after the war is the testimony of a great 
array of all the best witnesses, General Grant at their 
head. Had there been one statesman to lead 
the Republican party — I will not say statesman — 
one man of American ideas, of Christian heart, he 
might have founded a party in the South which 
must in time have had a permanent influence in 
the politics of the country. 

They did nothing of all this, — nothing for the 
South, nothing for the country, nothing that will 
stand for even their own party interests. To the 
brains of the South, to its real permanent majority, 
which no brute force of bayonets, no electioneering 
contrivances, no acts of Congress can very long keep 
down, thev said : " Let there be no orood-will, but 
hatred, between us now and hereafter." 

Throughout they listened to their narrow fears ; 
they took counsel of their blind resentments. They 
ceased not to cry out for vengeance. As if with 
studied purpose they found out the tenderest 
points of a people smarting under their utter over- 
throw, and there they outraged them again and 



Celebration, 1870. 31 

again. They attempted even to make them the 
wretched instruments of their own dishonoi when 
they demanded of them, as a condition of their res- 
toration into the Union, that they should put a 
brand of disabiHty upon their own chosen leaders 
in the cabinet and in the field. What did they 
require } They required them to vote for an 
amendment to the Constitution inflicting upon 
their Lees, their Johnstons, their Stephenses, such 
political disabilities as the law is wont to impose 
only upon the guiltiest inmate of a State Prison. 
Why, suppose it had been our lot, instead of theirs, 
to fail in the mighty conflict — as in the ways of 
Providence it might have been, for great soldiers 
know that war is fortune, and we all know 
that it is not always the best cause that has the best 
success, and that more great wars have resulted 
for the wrong side than for the right one. I say, 
if we had been overthrown, and they had said to 
us as the condition of our resuming our rights in 
the Union : " You, men of the North, you have first 
to single out your own chosen leaders in the war, the 
men of your love and trust, and by your own votes 
you shall declare them infamous with the infamy of 
the felon." What would we have said } Every man 
of us, everywhere, would have flung back their de- 
mand in their faces. We would have said to them : 
"What, take our Sherman, our Farragut, our McClel- 
lan — (loud and long-continued cheering, again and 
again renewed) — take them and with our own 
hands put upon their brow the brand of your dis- 



32 Tamma^iy Society. 

honor ! — never, never, never." (Great cheers and 
applause.) We would have said : " Whatever they 
were to you, they were only too faithful to us, 
and we will not be the instruments of your ven- 
geance against them." (Applause.) That is what 
we should have said to them, though their con- 
quering s\\(jrd was at our throats. Promptly, as 
one man, the South rejected their amendment, and 
we honor the South for it. (Applause.) On such 
terms, which of us would have wanted her in 
the Union ? A people capable of so dishonoring 
themselves b}^ their own act would have shown 
themselves unworthy to be a part of the Amer- 
ican Republic, (Loud applause.) Yet this most 
righteous act of the South — her refusal to be a 
party to her own shame — was at once seized upon 
as a proof of her continued " disloyalty," and as a 
justification for a long series of wrongs and indig- 
nities, and chief among them the so-called recon- 
struction system. What a complete idea of the 
evil spirit in which our opponents undertook to deal 
with the South do we gain from this single fact! 
It is more eloquent than a thousand speeches. 
(Applause.) Possessed with such a spirit, is it won- 
derful that our opponents have shown themselves 
80 incapable of understanding how little had been 
accomplished when the war ended in 1865, and 
how very much was still to be done.^ True, we 
defeated their armies, overran their territory, over- 
threw their confederacy. All that, we owe our 
armies and navies. Is all that, much for a great 



Celebration, 1870. 33 

and enlightened people to accomplish after four 
years of war at such an expense of blood and 
treasure as in the same time the world never before 
saw? Any barbarian from the plains of Asia, any 
Genghis Khan or Tamerlane could have done as 
much with men and cannon enough. (Laughter and 
applause.) But our Republican friends will remind 
us that they have been able by military power to 
reconstruct the States of the South, and to main- 
tain reconstruction. That is to say, they have been 
able by bayonets to impose upon an exhausted, 
dispirited people any government they chose. 
Again I ask, is that much to boast of for a great 
party ruling a great Republic } A war which 
results in nothing but that, is a war that has 
but a barbarian result. Such a result is no more 
and no better than is achieved under the semi-bar- 
barous rule of any military chief How little 
is it all ? How short a way does it go towards 
the restoration of the authority of the Consti- 
tution and the Union in the hearts, in the free- 
will of the people of the South. That was the 
grand object — let me say it — the only object of the 
war. (Applause.) Has the party in power ever 
since the war closed, accomplished that object.'' 
Has it made any considerable progress in that di- 
rection } Why, the continual declaration of its 
most representative men is that the people of the 
South, in a majority of the States that were in se- 
cession, are far more disloyal than they were the 
day of the surrender at Appomattox, or in the 



34 Tammany Society. 

year that followed the surrender. If they are, in 
the name of Heaven whose fault is it ? (Great 
applause.) On the close of such a struggle as the 
■ South made, she accepted the situation as fully as 
could be expected ; indeed more fully than had 
been expected. Her organized resistance had 
ceased ; in her utter exhaustion she had no in- 
clination to continue the contest in any form. 
The dispositions of her people were excellent. 
Why have they changed so much for the worse } 
There must be a cause. The American, North or 
South, is instinctively a man of order, of peace, of 
relations with society, and of obedience to law and 
government (Applause.) Why is it that the dis- 
positions of the men of the South, which were so 
laudable at the close of the war and for a consider- 
able time afterwards, are now so bad } There is but 
one explanation, my friends. It is the flagrant mis- 
government of them by our opponents. The perse- 
cution which makes the wise man mad has done its 
work in the South. When our opponents accuse the 
South of being disaffected, they condemn themselves. 
For five years since the war closed they have had the 
South in their own hands, to do with her as they 
would, without let or hindrance. Having had all the 
power to make her peaceful and well-affected, or at 
least orderly, if they have not done so the whole 
fault is theirs. The entire responsibility is with 
them for their utter failure in the South. 

But this is not all. Not only have our oppo- 
nents failed to give the South good government, 



Celebration, 1870. 35 

but they have not given her any stable government. 
The government of one day is thrown down the 
next; reconstruction has continually to be recon- 
structed. Since the war Georgia has had three or 
four governments, civil and military, or partly civil 
and partly military, by turns. In the first month 
of this session of Congress she was taken in hand 
by our opponents. She had then had for nearly 
a year and a half a reconstructed State govern- 
ment in complete operation, and fully recognized 
at Washington. Her members had their seats in 
the House of Representatives until the close of the 
last Congress. Yet in December last, by act of 
Congress, she was thrown back for a little more 
reconstruction under the military power of the 
United States. 

To-day the question which troubles the majority 
in Congress is, whether Georgia is to remain in- 
definitely under a sort of joint military and civil oc- 
cupation, or to be allowed to have a State govern- 
ment of some sort or other in the Union, with re- 
presentatives in Congress. 

Look next at the case of Tennessee. Tennessee 
was never fully out of the Union ; and yet Tennes- 
see, because she chose a while ago, by an over- 
whelming vote, to hurl from power her oppressors 
at home, who had outraged and wronged her be- 
yond endurance, has been in danger, every day of 
this session of Congress, of being put under the 
heel of the military power for the purpose of re- 
construction after such fashion as may best suit 



36 Tammany Society. 

the party exigency. How can it be said that there 
is a stable government in any portion of the 
country where such things are possible ? 

Another instance occurs to me in the case of 
Virginia. A few weeks ago a member from that 
State, in the House of Representatives, rose in his 
place and proposed what was virtually an inquiry 
by the Committee on Reconstruction, whether Vir- 
giniashould not once more be reconstructed. Vir- 
ginia was then, and had been, as peaceful as any 
State in the Union ; and the ground assigned was 
most preposterous. Yet see the sense of utter 
insecurity produced in men's minds by the vio- 
lent revolutionary policy at Washington. At once 
a general panic, as if at the invasion of a hostile 
army, struck the State of Virginia. Upon the 
best authority I was informed that of the many im- 
portant business movements projected or in pro- 
gress in that State, nearly every one stood still as 
if paralyzed for the time. It is true nothing fur- 
ther came of this assault upon Virginia. It was 
too much for even the Reconstruction Committee 
of the House of Representatives. But you can 
judge for yourselves what must be the condition 
of things in the South when a single wanton reso- 
lution, introduced by a mischievous man, can fill 
a State like Virginia with consternation. 

It is not the South alone that is in danger from 
the unconstitutional policy of our opponents. I 
desire 3'-ou to understand, and the country should 
know in season, that they claim that under certain 



Celebration, 1870. 37 

circumstances, of which Congress is to be the judge, 
it may exercise the same authority to deal with the 
States of the North as it has exerted over the States 
of the South. Let me explain. It is under pretext 
of the provision in the Constitution bindingthe Uni- 
ted States to guarantee a RepubHcan form of gov- 
ernment to the several States. Undersome unheard 
of construction of their own, our opponents claim 
to have found in that clause what they call " a great 
fund of power" in Congress. Their most leading 
men there have over and over, during the present 
session, declared the insufferable pretension that 
Congress may look into the Constitution and laws 
of any State, or into the administration of them 
in any State, and if it finds there any element 
which in its opinion is not according to "a Repub- 
lican form of government," it has the power to recon- 
struct that State according to its ideas of Repub- 
lican government. You will judge of the enor- 
mity of this doctrine by an illustration. I 
give it to you, because it places the claim of our 
opponents on their strongest ground. The ar- 
gument is first, that the general intelligence 
of the people is the only permanent basis of 
republican government ; second, that to produce 
this general intelligence a system of free com- 
mon schools, which will secure the education of 
all, is essential ; and hence that a State which 
by its constitution and laws fails to support pre- 
cisely such a system of free connnon schools as 
shall in the judgment of Congress suffice to effect 



38 Tammany Society. 

that result, has not " a republican form of govern- 
ment," and may be reconstructed by Congress at 
its own will and pleasure. vSo you see, good peo- 
ple, if here in your State of New York you have 
not a free common school system, or if you have, 
but in some respect that Congress may pretend 
to think material it falls short of its standard of 
efficiency, the powers that be at Washington may 
occupy your State with the army and navy of the 
United States, may depose your government, place 
your State under a military chief, thrust her 
out of the Union, and hold her there until she is 
reconstructed to suit the purposes of the dominant 
party. (Loud cries of " Let them come ! " " Let 
them come ! " " God help them if they do ! ") The 
.doctrine of this claim, I admit, is as monstrous as it 
is insufferable ; for it puts all State constitutions 
and governments at the mercy of Congress, and 
virtually reduces the States into mere provinces of 
Congress. But I sincerely hope the results of the 
elections this fall will be such as to take away the 
stomachs even of our most Radical friends, for a 
long time to come, for any practical proceedings 
of the sort. (Loud cheers and applause.) Can 
the strongest partisan give one reason for the lon- 
ger existence of a party which can think of no 
other means of continuing its hold upon the gov- 
ernment than those foreshadowed by a claim of 
power which is simply naked palpable revolution } 

In all this we see the natural result of the por- 
tentous two-thirds majority in each House, — itself, 



Celebration, 1870. 39 

as is well known, the product of a series of enormi- 
ties perpetrated for that purpose, and not surpassed 
by the worst excesses in the history of political par- 
ties. The best and most reflectino^ men amono- 
our opponents — and there are many such; would 
there were more ! — look with dismay upon this ter- 
rible majority in both Houses, — a majority which, 
upon all questions where the passions of the war 
can be invoked, and upon all others which can be 
wrested into party questions, has shown itself as 
hard, as remorseless, as insensible to reason or to 
mercy as a machine. What can be more unsafe 
than such a majority for any party in a great Le- 
gislature } For the best of parties it is a constant 
temptation to arbitrary or vicious proceedings; with 
the present party in power its workings have been 
all pernicious. Its constant tendency is to send 
the real judgment of the party to the rear, 
or to drive it out, and to place mere violence 
in the lead, supported on each side by the human- 
itarian theorists of the country, and by that large 
class who are wont to " rush in where angels fear to 
tread." (Applause.)/^uring Napoleon's campaigns 
in Egypt, it used to be said that the order for ac- 
tion was, " Asses and savans to the centre." We 
have changed all that. The order nowadays is, 
" Asses and savans to the front."^^^C-(Great laughter.) 
Save me from your would-be philosophers and hu- 
manitarian theorists in politics. They have less 
wisdom and less humanity, and in our experience in 
this country they are chargeable with more enormi- 



40 Ta7iimany Society. 

ties in government — more of those blunders that 
are worse than crimes — than any other class 
of persons that have to do with public affairs. 
Applause.) 

But while we expose and denounce the evil courses 
and tendencies of our opponents — during their long- 
period of power in Congress practically unre- 
strained — we must not forget the actual destruction 
with which they menace to-day the oldest and best 
recognized rights of the States and liberties of the 
people. Under pretence of enforcing the Four- 
teenth and Fifteenth Amendments, they have passed 
recently in Congress — and it has become a law — 
a long elaborate statute, stuffed full of new crimes 
and offences ; of new pains and penalties ; of provi- 
sions for controlling registration and elections in the 
States, and employing the army and navy at elec- 
tions ; of hundreds and tens of hundreds of new 
officers, each with power to call out the army and 
navy ; and a host of other monstrosities which I 
cannot now recall. The sum of the whole is to 
give to the Radical party the power to control 
elections in the States by the army and navy of the 
United States. It is a bill under which, at any 
election at which members of Congress are chosen, 
that party is aliowtd to set at naught all State laws 
for registration of votes, or for the regulation of 
the polls ; allowed to surround the polls with Fed- 
eral soldiers, against all laws, usages, and tradi- 
tions of the American people ; allowed on the affi- 
davit of any irresponsible person, whose vote is re- 



Celebration, 1870. 41 

jected for want of registration, and who may claim 
it should have been received, to take the officers 
of election from their seats and cast them one and 
all into jail ; and thus and otherwise to carry or 
break up the election at any or all of the polls in 
a city or State. It is a bill which gives the Presi- 
dent the control of the Federal District Judges, so 
as to order them to and fro at his will, anywhere in 
their districts. More than that, in this most extra- 
ordinary statute our Radical friends provide for the 
appointment of an unlimited number of court com- 
missioners all over the country, each of whom may 
appoint an unlimited number of bailiffs for each 
election. What powers do you suppose all this 
army of bailiffs is to have } They have power not 
only to execute all warrants issued by these com- 
missioners, anywhere in the State where they are 
issued, but I assure you that each one of these 
hundreds of bailiffs — chosen mostly from the idlers 
and hangers-on of the marshal's and clerk's offices, 
beside themselves with partisan feeling, in the 
midst of the excitement of a contested election, — 
has the power to call on the army and navy of the 
United States to aid him at his discretion in the 
execution of his warrants ! 

One alleged object of this bill is to enforce the 
Fifteenth Amendment. That amendment, you will 
remember, provides that " the right of citizens of 
the United States to vote shall not be denied or 
abridged by the United States, or by any State, on 
account of race, color, or previous condition of ser- 
6 



\ 



42 Tammany Society. 

vitude ! " Whatever else may be contested as to 
this amendment, one thing is beyond contest or 
question, — that by its express terms it operates 
only upon the States as such, as great political 
bodies. Concede, if you will, that it extends also 
to officers of States, acting under State authority. 

But the new act goes ever so much further. Its 
theory is, and its provisions are, — that if at the polls 
in your city, for instance, any quarrelsome fellow, 
inflamed with drink, should drive off a black voter, 
and make him lose his vote, that would be a case 
in which the right of a citizen to vote is ''denied 
or abridged by the State on account of color." It 
would be a case for calling out the army and navy 
of the United States against the State of New 
York. Can the force of nonsense further go } 
Why, my friends, we all know that when your great 
State acts, it is as a State through her government. 
A State can act in no other way. But we deny, 
and every man of sense enough to make a promis- 
sory note denies, tli^t any disorderly person at the 
polls is the State/ Orrce a great king of France, in 
the fulness of his pride of place, exclaimed : " The! 
State — I am the State ! " But here we see that our\ 
Radical friends have reached the other extreme of 
absurdity that enables any drunken ruffian on elec- 
tion-day at your polls to make himself the State of 
New York ! "^Laughter and applause.) 

In the same view — of placing the practical con- 
trol of the elections in the hands of the Radical 
party — a concerted effort has been made in both 



Celebration^ 1870. 43 

Houses of Congress so to alter the laws of natural- 
ization as to accomplish that object. The character 
of the bills originally pressed in both Houses was 
the same, — the same in the offensive, and indeed 
tyrannical, provisions with which they were filled. 
The result of each is the oppression and insult of 
every man seeking to be naturalized. His ap- 
plication is a law-suit in which any number of at- 
torneys may appear against him ; and which, if 
contested, must last a considerable time, and may 
consume days and even weeks, at an expense to 
the applicant of not less than twenty dollars in the 
simplest case of contest, up to hundreds of dollars. 
This is not all or the worst. The sting of the 
system is that the applicant is put upon his trial, — is 
treated like a criminal at every step, from the first 
to the last. In some respects he is worse treated: 
for he is pronounced guilty and called upon to 
prove his innocence, in the absence of any proof 
against him. Nothing worse is found in the old 
notorious alien and sedition laws. From their day 
since, nothing so bad has ever been attempted 
by any party in the country. One of these bills is 
still in the Senate, where they have just amended 
it by admitting the Chinese to naturalization! 
Whether the Chinese feature or the other odious 
provisions will be retained is not yet known. If they 
are struck out there, it will be as it was in the House 
of Representatives — not by any sound sentiment of 
the majority, but by the votes of all the Democrats, 
united with the votes of Senators from Western 



44 Tammany Society. 

States, who do not venture to vote otherwise, in the 
face of the deep interest their States have in promo- 
ting European immigration, and, by consequence, 
naturalization ; and in the face also of the large 
element of adopted citizens in the Radical party of 
those States. 

I have already spoken too long — very much 
longer than I intended when I rose. ("Go on! go 
on!") But I cannot close without some brief 
words upon a question which, though it is almost old 
in my own State, has but recently been thought of 
the first importance in the States east of the Rocky 
Mountains. A few months ago it was but a little 
cloud in the New England sky, no bigger than a 
man's hand. To-day it spreads its frowning shadow 
all over your horizon. I refer, of course, to the 
Chinese question — a question with two mighty and 
portentous aspects : one, the expulsion of the labor 
of the country by the introduction of the degraded 
cheap labor of Asia; the other, the poisoning of 
our civilization by the civilization of Asia. The 
first of these aspects is the most pressing 

In the few moments left tome, I shall speak only 
of that. 

On this whole subject of labor, the corner-stone 
of my creed is laid deep. I hold that no society 
is well or safely organized, whatever its apparent 
strength, which does not rest on a sound organiza- 
tion of labor; and that cannot be when the work- 
ing-man is by any contrivance defrauded of his 
wages — that is, of his just share of the profits of 



Celebration, 1870. 45 

his own labor, — and thus degraded in the State ; 
whether this contrivance be by the competition of 
the cheap, debased labor of Asia, or by any other 
mode. I know what fine things are said of the 
importance of capital to labor, and that there 
is no necessary antagonism between them. 
I admit that capital has its importance, though 
it grows less and less as compared with the fast 
growing importance of labor. I wish capital 
would oftener think of this. It would not then 
persist in futile efforts to hold on to advantages 
in the distribution of profits, as between itself 
and labor, which were never just, and which belong 
to times and ideas long obsolete in this land of 
equal rights. I agree, also, that there is no neces- 
sary antagonism between capital and labor. I say, 
more, that whoever wantonly creates such an an^ 
tagonism does a great wrong to society. ^ But I 
mean further to say this, and T say it rj'j^b'berately, 
on a subject of which I have thought muc h, that I 
know of no right in the State which comes before 
t he righ t. of the working-man to. make a living for 
himself and his family in decency and comfort, 
lause.) When the capital of the country seeks 



to defeat this great right, and to divorce itself from" 
the labor of the countr)^ it places itself, by its own" 
act, out of the pale of sympathy or even of respect. '^v 
On one ground and another," the attempt is 
made to defend the Chinese evil. Not one of 
those grounds is anything but insignificant That 
which is oftenest heard, " cheap labor," is the fals- 



46 Tammany Society. 

est of all. Cheap labor always, and most espe- 
cially in the mouths of the advocates of the Chinese 
evil, means degraded labor — means a working-class 
debased down to the Asiatic level. What man 
dares declare himself for that? If this country 
of ours abounds to-day in all elements of wealth, 
power, and progress beyond any example in his- 
tory, why is it? It is for this reason, more than 
any other or all others, — that nowhere in the 
world has labor been so well rewarded as in the 
United States, Nowhere has labor been at less dis- 
advantage in its relations with capital — nowhere 
has it been so nearly on equal ground with capital. 
One good purpose this " cheap labor " cry serves, if 
no other. It discloses the main-springof the Chinese 
movement. It shows that the purpose of it is — a 
sordid, unchristian, wicked purpose — to enable the 
capital of the country to add to its already swollen 
gains, at the expense of the ruin of the working- 
man.vyi^Vill these people never say " enough " ? 
Thev have Built up for themselves a tariff and an 
internal revenue system — a currency and banking- 
system — a system of corporate monopolies of 
every class rolling in wealth — all compacted together 
into one vast body of oppression which is everv 
"Tday making the rich richer and the poor poorer, 
and is dripping in all its parts with the sweat and 
blood of the working-people of the country. 
, Never in the world's history — never, certainly, in 
the history of the United States, have the profits 
of capital been so enormous as for the past se\'en 



Celebration, 1870. 47 

or ei ^ trht vears/^^^Q ^Jotwithstanding all this — in the 
face of the outcry of labor - in the face of Chris- 
tianity — in the face of civilization, they seek to pour 
upon this land a horde of vicious, debased Asia- 
tics, to snatch the bread from the mouths of the work- 
ing-men of the country, to degrade them as a class, 
to consign them to the poor-house, and their fami- 
lies, it may be, to lives of vice and shame. (Ap- 
plause.) My friends, it shall never be. (Great 
applause.) 

This is no question to be treated as issues be- 
tween parties usually are. It is very far be- 
yond that. It is the touchstone of the right 
of any party to live. Any party which, by its 
course and general principles of action, now 
and heretofore, shows itself unfit to be trusted on 
this question, ought to go down. It will go down, 
no matter what may be to-day its power in the land, 
(Loud applause.) This question reaches down 
to the foundations of society. It goes to the exis- 
tence of your government. With our popular in- 
stitutions and now universal suffrage, we can have 
no free government without an intelligent, indepen- 
dent, free working-people. Will the Chinaman fur- 
nish the elements for such a people — any the least 
material out of which to maintain or bufld up States } 
( •' No ! never ! " Applause.) I understand the com- 
plaint made of many of you, by the advocates of the 
Chinese evil, is that you are too free and indepen- 
dent ; that, on subjects which interest you, you are 
apt to have a mind of your own, which you will 



4^ Tammany Society. 

not give up to those who seem to imagine that they 
are set over you as your natural guides and instruc- 
tors. (Loud cheers and applause.)\^It is innospi- 
r it of flattery that I declare I Iook To the w ork- 
ing-men of the country for the redemption oi' its" 
l iberties. I d o notjook to your bankers and your 
capitaHsts — to the men that are afease in their 
\ possessions. There arc, I know, good men among 
them ; but I fear too many of them are ready to sub- 
I *mit to any sort of despotism, to-morrow, that will add 
I five j^er cent, per annum to their interest. I look to 
I you men that depend upon your daily labor for 
I your daily bread ; I look to you, to whom we owe 
I k-tlaat--»te^came out oi our great war victorious and 

V r)(^l- Azanqiii'shcrl (Applause.) 

In this great contest against the Chinese evil, it is 
not for yourselves alone that you act. You are 
standing forward, also, in defence of the principles 
of American government and civilization prin- 
ciples we devoutly believe the truest, the grand- 
est the world has yet seen, for which no earthly 
sacrifice is too great. (Loud applause.) I trust there 
is no difficulty in understanding my position on 
this question. I want you all to understand it. 

I belong to a great political party, and I suppose 
I may be thought to be somewhat concerned in 
politics. But I beg of you, do not leave this ques- 
tion all to the politicians. You have got to fight 
it out yourselves — (applause) — and that without 
delay, with your whole strength and your whole 
mind. 



Celebration, 1870. 49 

As I have said, I put this issue above all mere 
partisan interests. If I adhere to one political 
party in the country, on the great questions of the 
day, it is because I knpw it to be faithful and true 
on those questions, and especially on this, the 
greatest of them all. It could not be otherwise 
without being false to its traditions, its policy, its 
distinctive political principles, its fundamental ideas 
of government since the first hour of its existence. 
Happily for us all, there is still one great party left, 
which is free from the thraldom of the banded 
money-power of the Union-^free, ready, willing, 
and able to stand by the country and its labor in 
the contest which is already upon them. (Great 
applause.) 

Be sure it will be no light contest. As yet you 
have on this side of the continent but the first rip- 
ples of the tidal wave. In my own State of Cali- 
fornia we have met the Chinese evil face to face. 
With our own eyes we have seen it backed up by 
a most pernicious treaty ; by a greed as stupid as it 
is sordid for " cheap labor ;" by a vicious public 
sentiment in the ruling party of the Union — grow 
greater and stronger day by day. At length, and 
not an hour too soon, our people are aroused. On 
the Chinese evil there is substantially but one party 
in California. If there is any party there for it, it 
merely serves to quicken the party which is against 
it. It will be well for the rest of the country when 
it stands, as California stands, against the Chinese 
evil in all its aspects — the labor aspect and every 
7 



50 Tammany Society. 

other. The sooner the better, believe me. (Great 
applause.) 

If we have a great contest before us, have we 
not also a great cause, a good cause, a cause which 
can never be crushed, and cannot remain much 
longer overthrown ? 

For success we need only wisdom, and union in 
action among those who are united in opinion. 

If to-morrow all the voters who are opposed to 
the misrule at Washington could be united in one 
party, from that moment Radicalism would be 
doomed. Now, beyond all doubt, there are a few 
clear issues upon which they are agreed and ready 
to act tofjether. Shall we not allow them to unite 
and to act with us? 1 )u we not all know that on 
the great issues of an econom ical administration of 
thegove rnment ; o f a sound currency; of a reduc- 
tion of taxes; of a reformed tariff; of the public 
lands preserved for the people; and above all, of 
the defence of the labor of the country: against\ 
Asiatic degradation, — we can all act together as one, 
man P^^'Let us so act, and success is ours ; and while 
these issues are all with us, let us not forget that " 
the Democratic party is pledged also to the invio- " 
labilitv of the Constitution, the intes^ritv of the 
Union — (applause) — and the preservation of all the 
j-ights of the States unimpaired. (Applause.!/;^ Can 
such a cause long fail of success ? I wish no 
greater happiness in my own time than to see the 
hour of its triumph. I cannot think of any wish 



Celebi^ation. 1870. 51 

more worthy of the great glory of this memorable 
day. (Great applause.) 

When the applause following Senator Casser- 
ly's speech had subsided, District Attorney Garvin, 
who took the chair during the unavoidable absence 
of the Grand Sachem, introduced the Poet of the 
occasion, the Hon. John G. Saxe, who eloquently, 
clearly, and effectively rendered his poem of 

•'OLD TAMMANY." 

'Tis the voice of the croaker — ^I hear him complain : 

" Those Tammany boys, they are at it again ! 

Why keep such a feast in a partisan way ? 

' Independence^^ I'm sure, is a National Day ! " 

So it is ! God be praised ! and that is just why 

We Democrats honor the Fourth of July ! 

Were it anything other, or smaller, I own. 

We'd all be contented to let it alone ; 

Or leave it to men — to a party, I'll say. 

Accustomed to think in a narrower way ; 

A party peculiarly fitted to shine 

(With a blue sort of light) in a different line ; 

Whose leaders, for instance (I won't call them knaves), 

Being partial to soldiers — when cold in their graves — 

Appointed a day fbe it tenderly said) 

For crowning with flowers the patriot dead ; 

" Flowers, flowers for the heroes ! " the demagogues cry, 

While wiping a tear that is " all xviyour eye " — 

" One Day for the soldier to memory dear ! " 

Whom, living, they robbed every day in the year ! 

And still at the Capitol mark how they treat 

The soldier too noble to cringe at the feet 

Of the Dons who determine a General's merit 



52 Tammany Society. 

By the gauo^e — nothing else- — of his partisan spirit. 
Mere fealty to party they reckon much higher 
Than service to country, and so they inquire 
If he's fluent of speech in the Radical cant ? 
And '• What has he done, now, for General Grant ? " 
" Don't tell us," they cry, '' of his honors and scars ; 
But what is the brand of his 7'ote — and cigars f'' 
"A hit at the magistrate ! " some one exclaims ; 
Well, /shan't abuse him by calling him names ; 
I honor his office ; and let us reflect 
The head of the nation demands some respect. 
I do not forget he's our President, placed 
In the chair that a Jackson and Jefferson graced. 
Let us recollect that — till he's laid on the shelf — 
However he seems to forget it himself. 
And as to abuse, with the worst I could say 
By giving my genius the liveliest play, 
I never could hope to accomplish the end 
Half so well as T heard a Republican friend, 
Who having, unwisely, forgot to subscribe. 
Or being, unluckily, not of the tribe 
Presidental or '■' DenV ?\, as certainly failed 
Of the office he sought for, and therefore assailed 
The man in such language as passes belief 
That one could employ in denouncing his chief. 
He said — as I heard it, so you will receive it — 
Pray do not imagine I think you'll believe it- 
He said, in such bittor extravagant speech. 
As simple hyperbole never could reach ; 
Pronounced in a manner less civil than hearty — 
" The fellow disgraced the Republican party ! " 
Apropos of the party of which I've made mention, 
Suppose I should give it some further attention ; 
It has very few friends, and while I am '• in," 
T own the temptation to "hit it agin T^ 



c 



Celebration^ 1870. 53 

A party which bases, with singular ease. 

Immoral proceedings on "moral idees ;' 

Denounces small rogues who are caught in the fact. 

But favors the big ones, or holds them intact ; 

Like the land-stealing rascals and similar jobbers. 

Meek-faced, parliamentary, " Radical " robbers. 

Who hasten to place on the visible hand 

That deals in cadetships an infamous brand ; 

While their own, at the moment, grown bolder and bolder, 

Are plunged in the Treasury up to the shoulder, 

Success to Old Tammany, long may she stand 

The bulwark of Freedoni — the pride of the Land !j 

What parties and factions, of transient renown. 

In her Century's life have come up ?i\\A i^one down. 

While she, looking on, in her vigilant way, 

Poked her fun at the farce, or her hand in the fray ; 

And still, to her honor, whatever the fight. 

Had a word and a blow in defence of the right. 

She hailed the first triumph of Liberty's cause. 

And the motto to-day is "The Union and Laws ; " 

She stood by the Flag when old England once more. 

Unschooled by disaster, invaded our shore. 

And got the old lesson repeated so plain 

She scarcely will need to be taught it again ! 

And when it befell that the tottering State, 

For the wind of dissension that Faction and Hate 

Through the length of the Land had been sowing afar, 

Was reaping the whirlwind of treason and war. 

Still true to the Union see Tammany stand 

With "the old starry banner" still firm in her hand, 

While foes at the South would the Union divide. 

And fools at the North were for " letting it slide ! " 

Success to Old Tammany ! therefore, I say 
(How sweetly she smiles on this festival day) ; 




54 Tammany Society. 

In health, strength, and beauty, long, long may she stand, 
The Bulwark of Freedom — the Pride of the Land. 

The Hon. S. S. Cox was a working member of 
the Democratic party, and as one of the most elo- 
quent speakers for that party in Congress, was ex- 
pected to appear, and of course he did appear, 
and spoke with his usual vivacity, wit, and enthu- 
siasm. He was introduced by Sachem Garvin. 
His speech was frequently interrupted by laughter 
and applause, but it appears, as the speeches of 
that honorable gentleman always do, sparkling and 
happy in the pages of Tammany record. 

HON. S. S. cox's SPEECH. 

Mr. Cox said : 

Within the shadow of Tammany, and at its old 
altar, we meet to dedicate ourselves anew to the 
republic. There are hallowed associations here 
which give significance to the motto: " Pulchrum 
est bene facere republican; etiambene dicerehaudab- 
surdum est." Already our people are anticipating 
the celebration of the hundredth year of our re- 
public. The very fact of the continuance of our 
nation, amidst the wonderful changes of the cen- 
tury, is a eulogy upon those who have said and 
done well for its existence. It has withstood the 
shock of time and the storms of civil conflict, for 
its foundations were well laid. I rejoice with those 
who rejoice over this triumph of the republic. 



Celebration, 1870. 55 

(Applause.) Nor will I chant jeremiads of boding 
about our future. Fresh from the national arena, 
with my mind amazed and depressed at the immi- 
nency of our perils and the encroachments of 
power, I will still believe in the republic. The ex- 
cesses of power have at last aroused the people. 
From the Golden Gate — whose silver-tongued 
orator has spoken to us to-day — to this metropolis 
of the continent, come notes of awakening and 
glad tidings of political salvation. Our tarnished 
credit, fame, and dignity will be rescued from the 
spoiler and the oppressor. New York leads the 
van in the conflict, for she leads the battalions of 
the Democracy. (Applause.) But this struggle 
for our rescue is not a mere holiday muster. It is 
no light skirmish to meet and overwhelm a party 
which by its mercenaries collects and spends four 
hundred millions a year. We must omit no vigi- 
lance or skill — for we must remember that to this 
long purse of the enemy is added the fear of his 
exposure for ten years of rapacity and misrule. 
We must watch each movement of the Radical 
janizaries. They have seized the powers of the 
State, and by arbitrary methods have turned the 
very engines of our freedom aggressively upon the 
States and the people. Montesquieu says, that 
" as in democracies the people seem to act most 
as they please, this sort of government has been 
deemed most free ; and the power of the people 
has been confounded with their freedom." By 
which he means that we may have the temple of 



56 Tammany Society. 

freedom while the spirit is absent from the shrine; 
or, if present, in the form of a deformed and de- 
grading image. It is true with us that, while the 
greater sovereignty has engrossed all lesser sove- 
reignties, the shell of a republic still exists. The 
beautiful Evangel of Liberty taught by the Father 
of Democracy, Thomas Jefferson, in the Declara- 
tion of Independence, has been so tortured in its 
text and misapplied in the commentary that it 
reads, under Radical light, more like the mum- 
meries of some unearthly craft, than the pure, 
simple, well-ordered system of restraint and mode- 
ration embodied in the local governments and 
Federal Constitution of the United States! 
Usurpation and violence, unfraternity and pro- 
scription, have mutilated our system. The present 
administration, in its treatment of the South, has 
not exhibited a single element of charity or 
brotherhood The only code of amnesty — five 
years after the end of civil strife — proposed by a 
Radical leader — has in it so many exceptions that 
they outweigh the modicum of grace in the first 
section of his bill of hate. 

Not only are States held in terror and in thrall by 
the majority of an omnipotent Congress, but that 
body is now engaged in showing how, in individual 
liberty, it can set aside the Bill of Rights in the 
Federal Constitution. A Radical Congressman is 
thrashed at Richmond. (Laughter.) The gentle- 
man who thrashed him is an Irishman. It was 
not a breach of privilege ; nor was it for words 



Celebrationis 1870. 57 

spoken in debate; nor had it any connection with 
Congressional duty or quorum ; but the Irishman, 
having asked the man to drink and having met with 
a rebuff, struck the Radical, whereat Congress is 
indignant and arrests the assailant. (Laughter.) In 
a case which Judge Dowling would dispose of in 
ten minutes, the precious time of the American Con- 
gress is taken up for a week or more ; and a cit- 
izen is immured in a crypt of the Capitol because 
of this simple assault. Not only is the right of 
trial by the jury of the vicinage violated, and the 
right of habeas corpus disregarded, but the princi- 
ple is sought to be established that a Congressman, 
if a Radical, is a privileged person, a sort of " holier 
than thou " person, to be shielded from assault by 
the Federal power. The attack against the right 
of one is thus made an attack upon the liberty of 
all. (Applause.) 

In the least, as in the greatest affairs of govern- 
ment, the Radical party follow in peace the lessons 
of tyranny it practised in war. Not satisfied with 
voting into Congress men never elected, but rejected 
by thousands of majority, that party would restrict 
suffrage by laws which, like those of King George's 
time, impede naturalization. To make this more 
galling, they connect it with the army and navy, so 
as to effect elections by force in certain cities which, 
like New York, have not been educated up to the 
Radical standard ! Even in such matters as sala- 
ries this administration seems to delight in placing 
(he military above the civil power. This is seen in 
<s 



58 T aw nm a ny Soeieiy. 



the exorbitant salaries of the hisrher military and 
naval officers as compared with the salaries of 
ci\'ilians and judges. 

Emerson says that " we ride four times as fast as 
our fathers did; grind, weave forge, plant, till, 
and exca\-ate better, and have better shoes, glo\-es, 
glasses, gimlets, and newspapers." True : but we 
have not improved in the conduct or econo- 
mies of our political life. Mr. Dawes proves 
it He appealed to the President as the "polar 
star of economy ; " and the result was a letter firom 
the War Department, read by General Butler, as- 
sailing him for his efforts to reduce expenditures. 
He found five hundred supernumeraries, officers in 
the armv, costinsT $i,2^ojooo. We have excesses 
of expenditures over appropriations, and in one 
department there are 1,600 more men employed 
than the law authorizes. When attention is called 
to these damaging facts it is said, " Oh, we are 
reducing the public debt ^240.000,000 a year — 
$20-000.000 a month." They claim credit for thus 
fleecing the people by excessive taxes, not only to 
fill their own pockets, but to pay off the debt be- 
sides. And when driven further for an excuse for 
the excesses of this over the previous administra- 
tions, only a week ago. on the 21st of June, Mr. 
Dawes said. "* that it was but fair to state that the 
Treasun.' estimated $32,000,000 by mistake." In 
other words, bunsrlinsr sroes hand in hand with 
profligacy. When driven again and again in de- 
bate, they at last take refuge in saying, we will 



Celebration, 1870. 59 

reduce taxation. But it is only pretence. ^( The 
very bills for these purposes, like the Tariff bill 
which passed the House, is an insidious robbery 
for a steel patent monopoly, a Connecticut corset 
company, or some other special petted interest in 
one section. There will be no substantial, per- 
haps not even an ostensible, reduction of tax- 
ation. All we eat, drink, wear, and use is taxed to 
its utmost. The very flag you flaunt on this 
Fourth of July must pay 100 per cent, to the 
American Bunting Company of Massachusetts I*"*^ 

I have done my part, as have my Democratic col- 
leagues, to reduce the tariff; and I have gone farther 
and sought to abolish all income, stamp, and gross 
receipt taxes, as I thought a frugal government 
might be carried on for ^100,000,000, to which 
add ^25,000,000 for the principal and $125,000,000 
for the interest of the public debt, thus reducing 
the present taxation $100,000,000. I have offered 
a bill to limit thus the expenses, and to abolish 
the internal revenue system of spies, informers, 
and inquisitors, and to remit what should be pro- 
perly raised thus to the States for collection, thus 
decentralizing federal power and abolishing a cor- 
rupt flock of greedy vampires. 

If the conspiracies of this administration were 
confined to the tariff, bounties, and land grants, it 
would be tolerable ; but we have other schemes 
and jobs. We have entered upon a new order of 
military diplomacy for commercial adventures ! 
The Executive, by his aide-de-camp, seeks to annex 



60 Tammany Society i 

St. Domingo! No matter for Cuba ; let her suffer- 
ing patriots wrestle in vain. Hurrah for St. Do- 
mingo ! By recent treaty this Executive agrees to 
work privately — privately —^\i\\ Congressmen for 
the ratification of the St. Domingo treaty. Was 
there ever such impeachable maladministration ? 
Thanks to Charles Sumner, that scheme of fraud 
was defeated. 

It is time the people had something to say about 
treaties. The grandiose style in which we ushered 
Mr. Burlingame's treaty with China has given us a 
pretty little labor question. The party of humanity 
have encouraged the Chinese to come, and before 
long it will naturalize them. The party of protection 
finds itself unable to protect labor against this ad- 
vent of paganism. In other words, in fostering 
Chinese immigration the Radicals have caught a 
Tartar. It is the old story. It is as old as the Pil- 
grim Fathers."? We know how Massachusetts insti- 
tuted negro slavery. ETistory tells us that George 
Downing, first graduate of Harvard, wrote to 
Governor Winthrop, urging a war with the In- 
dians, " as it would yield a crop of redskins, who 
may be exchanged, with great profit, for negro 
Moors to be slaves to us — a thing greatly to be 
desired, as one negro Moor can do the work of 
twenty Indians. Besides, he can live also at a 
cost of half less than a white Englishman.'SOThis 
is the Chinese question over again. It must be 
remembered that slavery is not a name only, but a 
fact. Involuntary servitude is the essence of slavery. 



Celebration, 1870. 61 

Sampson's seventy-five Chinese are but the forerun- 
ners of the clouds yet to come out of Asia. In 
another century some future Wendell Phillips 
will rise up and say, " This immigration of Tartars 
is excusable because our ancestors of the nine- 
teenth century were no better than their ancestors 
of the seventeenth." The one confiscated the pelts, 
traps, and wooden spoons of the Pequods, and the 
Pequods themselves ; ay, even sold the son of 
Philip to the Bermudas for powder wherewith to 
shoot the father; while the nineteenth century made 
prices so high by outrageous tariffs that all produc- 
tion became dear and wages high, and Chinese had 
to be brought to teach the artisans not to strike, 
but submit. 

So that whether we look to foreign or domes- 
tic affairs — whether to the protection we should 
give our citizens in Britain or Cuba, or to the 
protection we owe the shoemaker or miner — 
the Radical party has become destructive of the 
ends of good government. (Applause.) The 
Democracy demand peace among the States, 
order among the people, and economy in the 
administration. Secure these, and credit lifts 
up its head proudly ! Bondholder and plough- 
holder, tax-payer and tax-gatherer, all receive 
justice. Currency becomes as good as coin. Pub- 
lic credit restores prosperity. Gold and silver will 
come again. No one then can traffic in our credit 
for private gain. As Governor Seymour once 
said, " Democratic faith seeks to level up. It 



62 Tammany Society. 

means that coin shall ring again on the counter of 
the tradesman, glitter in the palm of labor, and 
gladden the heart of the wounded soldier." Hon- 
or, peace, and welfare — these will come with the 
end of proscription against the European emigrant 
and the Southern citizen. Our grass-grown ship- 
yards will again echo with the sound of labor. 
Our docks will be crowded with cargoes from the 
farthest East and West. Bribery, fraud, scheming, 
and bounties will become obsolete — as they were 
almost unknown under Democratic rule. The mil- 
Hons of acres of our domain will not be granted to 
grasping monopolies. The Union, in its spirit as 
in its form, will be restored. No power will be 
usurped which belongs to the States, and no land 
monopolized which belongs to the people. (Ap- 
plause.) To bring about such an era is the Dem- 
ocratic aim. To bring about such changes we 
must cling to the ancient altars. Let us adjure 
each other not merely to speak, but to do well for 
the republic — dicere el facer cy^^^isiovy tells us of 
an oath which rescued from tyranny the mountain 
republic of Europe — Switzerland. Last year I vis- 
ited that historic spot where the confederates of 
Swiss freedom met. It was on the promontor}^ of 
Grulti, amidst the majestic scenery of that land 
where grand mountains mirror themselves in splen- 
did lakes. " We swear," exclaimed Furst, Stauff- 
acher, and Melchthal, extending their arms — " we 
swear, in the presence of God, to live or die for 
our fellow-countrymen ; to undertake and sustain all 



Celebration, 1870. 63 

in common; neither to suffer injustice nor commit i 
injury ; to respect the rights of property ; to do no 
violence to the imperial bailiffs, but to put an end 
to their tyranny/'s*:^ T radition says that three^ 
springs gushed from the ground beneath their ieet7 
a nd they flow on to this day — symbolic of pure 
and perfect freedom.>> <^ Well might such a miracle 
follow an oath so full of gentleness and justice. 
Let us renew at this altar of St. Tammany — on 
this natal day of freedom — an oath to omit no ex- 
ertion by deed or word until the elemental spirit 
and beautiful form of our constitutional freedom is 
restored to the republic in that simple splendor and 
unassuming pomp which it wore when our Colum- 
bian Order was born ! (Applause.) 

NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT. 

Douglas Taylor came forward and said : 

On behalf of the Committee of Arrangements, I 
have to state to you that we have received a num- 
ber of letters from very eminent gentlemen. We 
have received letters from Senator Thurman, from 
Congressmen Eldridge and Wood; from Governor 
English, of Connecticut; from Judge Woodward, 
of Pennsylvania ; from General George B. McClel- 
lan — (immense round of applause) — and last, but 
by no means least, from John T. Hoffman, Gover- 
nor of this State, and, by the help of God and the 
Democratic party, the next President of these Uni- 
ted States. (Tremendous cheering.) The present 



64 Tammany Society. 

Governor, and our next President, says that noth- 
ing but ilhiess would have prevented his being 
here. He is at present in Newport, and his letter 
will appear in the papers with others to-morrow. 



Letters were received from Governor Hoffman, 
Senators Bayard, Stockton, and Sherman, and from 
Hon. Edwin Croswell, Hon. W. Beach Lawrence, 
of Rhode Island, Hon. Richard Vaux, Major-Gen- 
eral John G. Peck, Hon. Israel T. Hatch, Judge 
Hand, Hon. Leon Abbott, General M. T. McMa- 
hon, Hon. Darius A. Ogden, Hon. A. B. Conger, 
Hon. Charles W. Carrigan, of Pennsylvania, Hon. 
William G. Fargo, Hon. John J. Taylor, D. C. Cal- 
vin, Esq., John R. Conway, Esq., Hon. John V. L. 
Pruyn, Hon. Henry D. Barto, Hon. Arphaxad 
J_^oomis, Lieut-Governor Richard T. Jacobs, of 
Kentucky, Hon. William H. Ludlow, Hon. Theo- 
dore Miller, Hon. William F. Russell, and Colonel 
J. D. Van Buren. 

The letters received and read will be found in 
the back part of the book. 

Sachem Garvin then introduced the Hon. James 
Brooks, the champion in Congress of the abstract 
principles of New York Democracy, who has the 
reputation of possessing more political learning 
than any other member of Congress, and being 



Celebration, 1870. 65 

able to put his learning into the tersest and most 
journalistic English. His speech was heartily re- 
ceived with earnest applause. 



REMARKS OF MR. BROOKS. 

The Hon. James Brooks then having been seen 
on the platform, there were loud cries for him, to 
which he responded as follows (the welcome hav- 
ing been a very hearty one) : — 

You cannot well understand, fellow-citizens, the 
gratitude your members of Congress feel for a wel- 
come like this, so novel, so unaccustomed to us, 
who have been living for months in a hostile as- 
sembly, where, in consequence of tyrannical rules 
of order, and an indisposition to hear our free cri- 
ticisms upon public affairs, we are always unwel- 
come, and almost always frowned upon when we 
attempt to speak. Such receptions, then, as these, 
are as precious to us as they are novel ; and there- 
fore with pleasure I now respond to your call, 
though I have nothing prepared to say, and what- 
ever I may say must be the inspiration of the mo- 
ment. (Applause.) 

The Declaration of Independence here, which 
has just been read by the gentleman in whose 
veins runs the blood of its illustrious author, sug- 
gests themes to me, and when I heard him reading 
the declaration of his great ancestor I felt that Jef- 
ferson himself was here rebuking, July 4th, 1870 
9 



66 Tammany Society. 

tyranny, as on July 4th, 1776. (Applause.) The 
history of the present administration, as Mr. Jeffer- 
son declared of the then history of Great Britain, 
" is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, 
all having in direct object the establishment of an 
absolute tyranny over these States." 

Mr. Brooks then took up the copy of the De- 
claration from which Mr. Robertson had been 
reading, and analyzed parts of the Declaration, 
as follows : — 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident (said Mr. Jefferson), 
that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; and that to secure these 
rights Governments are instituted among men, deriving their 

JUST POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED." 

But these self-evident truths have all, or nearly 
all, been violated by the present administration of the 
Government. Under the pretence of making the Af- 
rican equal with the Caucasian white man, thousands 
and tens of thousands of white men, in eleven States 
of our Union, have been put under the absolute 
despotism of ignorant negroes, once their slaves. 
and this despotism has been enforced by armies of 
the United States stationed in these States, in 
utter violation not only of every principle of the 
Constitution of the United States, and of the De- 
claration of Independence, but of Magna Charla, 
and the right of trial by jury, or " the consent " of 
the governed people. The further pretence for 
this has been, as in Great Britain, 1776, that these 



Celebration, 1870. 67 

States were insubordinate, and could not be trusted 
with self-government , though the fact is, the violence 
and despotism have been continued years after the 
civil war was over, and when there was no more dis- 
turbance in these States than in New England, New 
York, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Kansas, or Nebraska. 
" The consent of the governed" has not only been 
utterly ignored in these States, but military satraps 
sent from Washington have governed them, with- 
out the least regard to the wishes or the interests of 
the governed, — while Rump Legislatures have been 
created in the States in which strangers from other 
States have had control, whose sole object seems 
to have been to plunder and to rob the people, — 
as in Florida, where carpet-bag strangers have 
stolen, not a Railroad alone, but a whole State, 
and the franchises of that State, — or as in Loui- 
siana, North Carolina, or Georgia, where thou- 
sands and tens of thousands of dollars have been 
taken by the robbers, to the impoverishment of all 
the people, and without distinction of race, color, 
or sex, even ! (Loud applause.) Life in these 
States, as well as property, has been in the keeping 
of provost marshals and courts martial, — and all this, 
too, in times of the profoundest peace. The trial by 
jury has been exchanged for trial by the spur and 
sword. No equality has been allowed to the pro- 
scribed white man — not even equality with the 
negro. It has been a Government of Africans over 
Americans, as hard, as harsh, as cruel, when en- 
forced by the military, as the Government of King 



68 Tammany Society. 

George over the Colonies, which produced the 
Rebellion of 1776, and which then called forth the 
truths recorded in the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. (Prolonged applause.) 

The Declaration of Independence further says: 

" He (King George) has refused to pass laws for the accommoda- 
tion of large districts of people unless the people would relinquish 
the right of representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to 
them, and formidable to tyrants only." 

The administration in Congress, and in the Ex- 
ecutive Departments, has disfranchised and utterly 
ignored, in its Test Oaths, and its iron-clad oaths, 
and reconstruction acts, the right of some millions 
of people to representation, — the right, as Mr. Jef- 
ferson says, inestimable to them, and formidable 
unto the tyrants only of the administration. Even 
in States like Missouri, where no pretence of distur- 
bance exists, at least seventy-five thousand white men 
are disfranchised by Test and other oaths ; and in 
West Virginia a great number, — while from Virgi- 
nia to the Rio Grande of Texas, the most intelli- 
gent and best qualified portion of the people have 
no representation in the Federal or State Legisla- 
tures. 

" He has dissolved representative bodies repeatedly for opposing, 
with manly firmness, his invasion of the rights of the people. 

" He has refused for a long time after such dissolutions to cause 
others to be elected, . . . the States remaining in the mean 
time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and con- 
vulsions within." 

The Virginia Legislature was reconstructed two 
or three times, and the State was broken up and di- 



Celebration, 1870. 69 

vided by an arbitrary power in Washington, while all 
the Southern Legislatures elected by the consent of 
the governors have been broken up, more or less, 
several times, with constitutions imposed upon 
them from the Washington despotisms, civil or mili- 
tary. Though Georgia has been forcibly recon- 
structed so often, it is claimed now that the Rump 
reconstructed Legislature there can hold on, and 
hold over, and at pleasure, in defiance of the people, 
even reconstruct itself Or, in fewer words, eleven 
States of the Union, some of them, like Virginia 
and Georo^ia, the constructors of the Union and 
the Constitution, have been deprived now, for years 
after peace, of all " the inalienable rights " of self- 
government, and of equality in that Union their 
fathers ordained for them in 1787, and Mr. Jeffer- 
son maintained for them in 1776. 

" He has kept among us in times of peace standing armies with- 
out the consent of our Legislatures." 

" He has affected to render the military independent of and supe- 
rior to the civil service." 

" In quartering large bodies of armed troops among us." 

" In protecting them by a mock trial from punishment for any mur- 
ders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States." 

From thirty to forty thousand of our standing- 
army have been kept in the South since the peace, 
mainly to pack Legislatures and to enforce white 
inferiority and negro superiority there in the gov- 
ernment of these States, and these soldiers have 
paid little or no attention to the civil law. What- 
ever crimes these soldiers may have committed, or 
wrongs they may have done, have been tried only in 



JO Tammany Society. 

mock military courts by young lieutenants, often 
fresh from the school, and almost utterly ignorant 
of the civil law. These officers have often not 
only elected themselves to State Legislatures, but 
to Congress ; one even to the Senate of the United 
States as if from Mississippi, Gen. Ames, of Maine; 
while another lieutenant of the army, under pay, 
has been in Washington contesting a Texas elec- 
tion case of a M. C. ! The expense of this un- 
necessary military government has been millions 
upon millions to the people, and the support of it 
in part has made up the four hundred millions of 
annual taxation. 

" He has created a multitude of new offices, and sent hither 
swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance." 

These swarms of Federal tax officers are now 
for the first time in every Congressional District 
of the United States, and their business has been 
espionage into all men's business and all men's 
private affairs, in order not only to increase the 
taxes, but to exercise power over men by imperti- 
nent inquiries into their private affairs. 

" Imposing taxes on us without our consent." 
" Depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by jury." 
'' Taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, 
and attacking fundamentally i\\Q fo7-/ns of our Government." 

" Suspending our own Legislatures and declaring themselves in- 
vested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever." 

These charges against King George are all 
maintainable against Congress and the existing ad- 
ministration. Eleven States of the Union have 



Celebration, 1870. 71 

really no representation in Congress except what 
has been forced by the military ; and millions of 
taxes have been imposed upon the people there 
without their consent. The Democrats elected 
some twenty odd members of Congress more than 
the House of Representatives has given them. 
The right of trial by jury exists nowhere when mili- 
tary law is supreme. Our State Constitutions and 
Charters have been violated in the fundamental 
changes our forms of government have been made 
to undergo by Congress and the Executive ; and 
now Congress declares itself supreme over the 
States in degrading the State Courts, and in assum- 
ing the right to give away property or public 
franchises to individuals or monopolies, indepen- 
dent of the States. Congress has undertaken, too, 
to regulate State elections, and even State highways. 
The State charters, more or less, have all been 
broken down, and what was a Federal has now be- 
come a consolidated government. There is no safety 
now for the rights of States, or private or chartered 
rights within the States. Congress undertakes even 
to incorporate insurance, telegraph, and land com- 
panies, and to run railroads within the States. 
Thus, this is no longer a government of " free and 
independent States," as Mr. Jefferson declared \\. was, 
in 1 776, but a concentrated, consolidated despotism, 
the head of which is in Washington. (Applause.) 

Mr. Jefferson, too, seemed to have a second sight 
of this administration when he thus described the 
government of King George in 1776 : — 



72 Tammany Society. 

" He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States, — ■ 
for that purpose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of for- 
eigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither," 
&c. 



Mr. Noah Davis, of Monroe Co., N. Y. (now ap- 
pointed U. S. District Attorney in New York City 
therefor), and Mr. ConkHng, U. S. Senator from 
this State, have, in the bills they have both pre- 
sented, fully realized Mr. Jefferson's denunciation of 
King George, who in like manner endeavored to 
prevent the population of these States by obstruct- 
ing the laws of naturalization. These acts, as pro- 
posed, were worse than the Alien and Sedition 
Acts of the John Adams Administration ; and if 
such men are kept in power we shall soon have 
them, not as acts introduced, but as the laivs of the 
land. (Applause.) 

Now, fellow-citizens, while a descendant of Jef- 
ferson was rereading these " self-evident truths " 
of the Declaration of Independence, and reholding 
them up for the admiration of the people, they 
struck me as an impeachment of, or indictment of, 
the existing Administration of the Government by 
Mr Jefferson himself — now, July 4, 1870, as on 
July 4, 1776. And are they not.? (Cries of "Yes," 
" Yes," and loud applause.) Do you not hear Mr. 
Jefferson speaking these great truths now as in 
1776, and do you not feel that there is as great a 
necessity now for proclaiming them as in 1776.'* 
(Cries of " Yes," " Yes.") Hence, in his name, I 
now impeach and indict the Administration of the 



Celebration, 1870. 73 

existing Government, as Mr. Jefferson indicted the 
Government of King George in 1776. And here, 
in Tammany Hall, in behalf of the Democracy of 
the country, may I not reproclaim the Declaration 
of Independence of 1776, as the Democratic Plat- 
form for 1870? (Long and loud applause, and 
cries of " Yes," " Yes.") We therefore, then, as a 
Representative Democracy of the United States, 
" do, in the name and by the authority of the good 
people of these United States, solemnly publish 
and declare that these United States are, and of 
right ought to be, free and independent States." 
(Prolonged applause.) 

Fellow-citizens, this great document (taking up 
the Declaration) is, in its hatred of tyrants and ty- 
ranny, and in its adoration of self-evident (Democra- 
tic) truth, so full of inspiration, and of denuncia- 
tion of the men and measures dominant now, that 
but to read it, much more to reread it, is disloyalty 
perhaps ; but I did not mean to be disloyal to-day. 
(Laughter.) I hope, however, no loyal man's 
feelings will be hurt, if any "loyal men "are here. 
(Continued laughter.) These " truths," however, 
have tempted me into an extended series of im- 
promptu remarks never contemplated when I came 
here ; but they seemed so apposite for the times 
that I could not help expanding upon them. ("All 
right," " Go on.") No. I will go on only to say, 
that if these self-evident truths are not often re- 
proclaimed, and better adhered to than they have 
been for some years past, there will soon be an 



74 Tammany Society, 

end of this Republic, as of all other Republics 
gone before, and now wrecks in the tomb of time. 
What we most want now is the restoration of the 
Civil Government and the abolition of Military 
Governments. The forty or fifty thousand sol- 
diers we now have are no longer the officers or 
soldiers of Bunker Hill, or Yorktown, or Niagara, 
or New Orleans, or Chapultepec, or the garita of 
Mexico, or the brave volunteers of the civil war — 
but policemen only, constables. Jack Ketches, used. 
South, to dragoon white people into slavery, or 
North, on the Canada frontier, to catch and keep a 
stray Fenian. (Laughter.) What we most need 
in Washington is statesmen, not soldiers, — Jeffer- 
sons, Madisons, Jacksons, — not these policemen 
and constables, who, if once even good soldiers in 
war, are nothing but bumbailiffs and jailers in 
peace. (General laughter.) 

Mr. Brooks sat down amid loud and prolonged 
applause. 

Sachem Garvin neatly introduced Mr. William 
J. Hill, who rendered the song of " The Star- 
Spangled Banner," as an offset to " The Standard 
of Freedom." 

It is impossible to say whether the Standard 
or the Banner was hailed with the greatest enthu- 
siasm and delio^ht. The audience and the mem- 
bers of the Society joined in the chorus of the 
latter song. 



Celebration, 1870. 75 

At the conclusion of the exercises in the main 
hall, the more immediate guests of the Society and 
members of the press were served with a collation 
in one of the private committee-rooms, while the 
Society generally participated in the usual salt and 
hominy, with weak fire-water, in the General Com- 
mittee-room. At the latter the genial Father of 
the Council, James B. Nicholson, Esq., presided, 
and perfected the general joy of the whole table, as 
his friend Lady Macbeth says. Up-stairs Sachem 
Douglas Taylor presided, in the absence of the 
Grand Sachem, or of Mayor Hall, who was Chair- 
man of the Committee of Arrangements, and who 
were necessarily called away to attend the organiza- 
tion under statute of the Board of Supervisors. 



76 Tammany Society. 



LETTERS. 



Letters from the following gentlemen were 
then read ; — 

FROM GEORGE B. McCLELLAN, 

Orange, N. J., ynly i, 1870. 
Hon. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem : 

Dear Sir : I have the pleasure to acknowledge the re- 
ceipt of the invitation with which you have honored me, 
to meet with the Tammany Society for the purpose of 
celebrating the coming Fourth of July. 

I regret that I must be absent from the city on that 
day, and that I will consequently be unable to avail my- 
self of your very kind invitation. 

Will you allow me to take advantage of this opportu- 
nity to renew the expression of my ardent wishes for, and 
firm belief in, the success of the Democratic party. I am 
confident that the counsels of its leaders will be so wise, 
disinterested, and patriotic as to insure in the great ma- 
jority of the States of the Union triumphs equally deci- 
sive with those recently attained in the Empire State. 
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, 
Your obedient servant, 

George B. McClellan. 



Celebration^ 1870. ']'j 

FROM JUDGE liOSWORTH. 

New York, ynly i, 1870. 
Hon. William M. Tvvekd, Grand Sachem : 

Dear Sir : I desire to tender my thanks to the Tam- 
many Society for their cordial invitation to participate 
with them in the ceremonies of the Society, at Tammany 
I lall, on the fourth of the present month. 

I have arranged for ahsence from the State on that day. 

If it shall be as warm that day as it has been for sev- 
eral days past, no one can well boast, however patriotic 
he may be. with beinf( fired with a higher degree of pa- 
triotism than others. For any one animated with patri- 
otic impulses (and who would not be on that day and 
such an occasion .'*) would necessarily be warm with pa- 
triotic emotions. 

Whether the day be cool or hot, there will exist 
abundant causes of congratulation and gratitude. 

With a prospective surplus of the means of subsist- 
ence, with the avenues to competence, wealth, and dis- 
tinction open to all, and a country healthy and furnish- 
ing occupations to all who are willing to improve the 
opportunity presented, nothing would seem wanting to 
secure good government, social order, and personal secu- 
rity, beyond the conviction of every individual that uni- 
versal individual self-government and control would result 
in public prosperity and general security. 

A full appreciation of our blessings and privileges will 
make us ever hold in grateful remembrance the perils, 
sacrifices, and heroism which have made the Fourth of 
July immortal 

Trusting and believing that the ceremonies of the 
Tammany Society on that day will tend to strengthen the 
affection and veneration with which we cherish it, and 
that all who participate in them may be as happy as the 



78 Tam^nany Society. 

joyous memory of nearly a century of progress and pros- 
perity should make them, I can only regret my inability 
to be present. 

Yours very respectfully and truly, 

J. S. BOSWORTH. 



FROM HON. J. S. SMITH. 

WASHiNGTONf, June 29. 1870. 
Dear Sir : I am in receipt of an invitation to attend 
the celebration of the next Fourth of July with the Tam- 
many Society, at Tammany Hall. 

I sincerely regret that my public duties will not admit 
of my absence from Washington at that time, as it would 
afford me great pleasure to join in the ceremonies appro- 
priate to that day with a Society so long and so honor- 
ably connected with the party of the Constitution and the 
friends of good government. Hoping that the day may 
be propitious, and the occasion one of unusual interest 
and enjoyment, 

I am, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

J. S. Smith. 
Hon. Wm. M. Tweed. 



FROM HON. M. H. THROOP. 

No. 22 Pine Street, New York, July i. 
Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem, &c. 

Dear Sir : I thank you, and through you the Sachems 
of the Tammany Society, tor the" invitation to meet with 
the Society at its celebration of the approaching Fourth of 
July. I regret very much that arrangements, long since 
made, require me to leave the city to-day, for an absence of 
several weeks. 



Celebration, 1870. 79 

I doubt not that the meeting will be an occasion of un- 
alloyed gratification to all who shall participate in it. , The 
stirring and patriotic terms of your letter of invitation 
indicate that Tammany is fully awake to the signs of the 
times, which point unerringly to the conclusion that the 
political darkness has passed, and the daylight of true 
principles is at last spreading over the whole country. 
We who have suffered not only defeat, but obloquy, on ac- 
count of our devotion to the Constitution and the princi- 
ples handed down to us by our forefathers, are evidently 
to be vindicated at last ; and to witness the emphatic re- 
pudiation by the people of a party which has proved it- 
self wholly inadequate to the preservation of the Union, 
without destroying all that renders it valuable. The near 
approach of this consummation of our long-deferred hopes 
cannot fail to add greatly to your enjoyment on the ap- 
proaching occasion, and increases my regret at my in- 
ability to be present. 

Very truly yours, 

Montgomery H. Throop. 
The Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, corner Broadway and Park Place. 



from thomas sheppard, esq. 

District Attorney'sOffice, \ 
Philadelphia, Jtme 30, 1870. \ 

William M. Tweed, Esq. : 

Dear Sir : Please accept my thanks for the honor of 
your kind invitation to join with the Tammany Society 
in celebrating the approaching national anniversary. It 
would afford me great pleasure to be with you, but official 
duties will not admit of my leaving the city. Sincerely 
hoping that your meeting may be successful, and may ex- 
ert a beneficial influence, 

I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

Thomas Sheppard. 



8o Tammany Society. 

FROM SENATOR THURMAN, OF OHIO. 

United States Senate Chamber, ) 

Washington. Jjily 2^ 1870. \ 

Hon. A. Oakey Hall, New York : 

My dear Sir : It would give me great pleasure to 
attend the Tammany Society celebration of the anniver- 
.sary of American Independence, were it in my power to 
do so ; but my public duties require me to be here, and I 
must therefore forego that pleasure. With grateful thanks 
to the Society for their polite invitation, and kind regards 
to yourself personally, 

I am, dear sir, yours very truly, 

A. G. Thurman. 



FROM HON. GEORGE W. MILLER. 

Albany, July i. 1870. 
Hon. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem, &c : 

Your brief but very comprehensive and statesmanlike 
invitation to join you in celebrating the ninety-fourth an- 
niversary of our national independence was duly received. 
Having last year enjoyed your hospitality, I know that it 
is huge, and I regret that I cannot be with you again. 

To celebrate the Fourth of July is good, if not fashion- 
able. Your persistent continuance of these celebrations 
doubtless seems affected and foolish to some of our latter- 
day statesmen, but the Goddess of* Liberty smiles, and 
future generations will ascribe all honor to the grand old 
Columbian Order for fostering national reverence for that 
day which marks the greatest epoch of many centuries. 
I am, most respectfully, your obedient servant, 

George W. Miller. 



Celebration, 1870. 81 

GOVERNOR Hoffman's letter. 

Albany, June 30, 1870. 

Dear Sir : I am very sorry it will not be in my power 
to attend the celebration of the Fourth of July in Tam- 
many Hall. Other engagements, entered into perhaps 
with too little regard for my duty to the Council of 
Sachems and to the Great Wigwam, will call me elsewhere. 

Your celebration ought to be, and I have no doubt will 
be, one full of interest and spirit. Old Tammany has 
always, through prosperity and adversity, in war and in 
peace, without ever faltering once, been faithful and true 
to every principle of constitutional government, and on 
every Fourth day of July has proclaimed, by a great 
demonstration, its devotion to the doctrines of liberty 
and law which it preaches and practises every day in the 
year. 

There have been times when the people appeared to 
have lost their attachment to the great doctrines which 
underlie our republican form of government. They have, 
within a few years, seen these principles trampled upon 
by men in every department of the government. But 
these truths and doctrines are reasserting themselves 
with all their former power, and commanding anew the 
confidence, appreciation, and support of the country. 

The party in power at Washington, to whom the coun- 
try intrusted so much, have proved so faithless that a 
feeling of indignation is swelling the popular heart, work- 
ing out and soon to accomplish a great political revolution. 

Your invitation states so clearly and pointedly the 
shortcomings and the misdeeds of those now in power at 
Washington, that I need not recite them ; while it would 
scarcely become me, to whom the favor of the people has 
assigned so prominent a place, to dwell upon the improv- 
ed condition of the public affairs of our own State. I 



82 Tammany Society. 

may, however, with propriety express my confidence that 
the action of the late Democratic Legislature, in short- 
ening the session, and diminishing the size of the statute- 
book, is an earnest of greater progress in the same di- 
rection. 

Encouraged as we are by every sign of the times, let 
us look forward to an early restoration under Democratic 
rule of the " good old times of the Republic," when Con- 
stitutional law and Constitutional liberty shall be re-es- 
tablished ; when brotherly love shall be restored among all 
sections of the country ; when government expenditures 
shall be reduced and taxes lessened ; when sound financial 
practices shall take the place of unsound financial theo- 
ries ; when credit shall be restored, and the interest on the 
national debt be reduced ; when gold and silver shall be 
substituted for depreciated paper ; when an oppressive 
tariff, which, under the false pretence of protection to 
American industry, favors and enriches a few at the ex- 
pense of the people, shall be superseded by one which 
aims at revenue, and not at robbery and extortion ; and 
when American citizens shall feel again that, wherever 
they go, the flag of a powerful country floats over them, 
protecting them everywhere from wrong and injustice. 

Again expressing my regret that I cannot be present in 
person, and assuring you that I will be with you in spirit, 
I trust that your commemoration of America's great day 
may be as successful this time as it has always been. 
I am yours, very truly, 

John T. Hoffman. 
Honorable Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem. 



Celebration, 1870. 83 

LETTER FROM REPRESENTATIVE KERR, OF INDIANA. 

Washington, D. C. July 2, 1870. 

Hon. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem of Tammany 
Society : 

My DEAR Sir : I am in receipt of the invitation of 
your Society to participate in its ceremonies on the Fourth 
of July. My attendance there, I am sure, would afford 
me both gratification and instruction. For your venerable 
and patriotic Order I entertain very great respect. Its 
history, through many of its members, is most honorably 
connected with the history of our country. Its consistent 
devotion to the true principles of Democracy, and its free- 
dom from political vacillation and intolerance, distinguish 
it above all similar organizations. In its spirit of general 
nationality and constant opposition to all sectionalism 
it is worthy of imitation. I hope its influence for good, 
and its usefulness to our country, may continue to in- 
crease. 

I am not able to attend its celebration of the Fourth. 
Business connected with official duties forbids it. Yet I 
am persuaded that no American citizen should permit 
any ordinary circumstance to detain him from the appro- 
priate observance of that day. This duty appears to be 
now more imperative than ever. Of late years our rulers 
have made such wide departures from the teachings of the 
fathers, and have overstepped in so many vital respects 
the boundaries to federal power fixed in the Constitution, 
and have done so much to mislead the popular mind and 
corrupt the administration of government, that the safety 
of the future demands extraordinary efforts on the part of 
good citizens to stop the excesses of power and reform 
abuses. The evil passions aroused by civil strife, and so 
successfully appealed to heretofore by bad men, are for- 
tunately yielding to the better impulses and sober judg- 



84 Tammany Society. 

ment of the people, and we are fairly entered upon a new 
career of national life and development. This auspicious 
period should be improved by every friend of free institu- 
tions. Leaders and people alike should agitate for reform, 
not for reaction or revolution, but for peaceful and tho- 
rough reform. This agitation should be in great part 
elementary, so as to revive true and clear ideas concerning 
our institutions and their fundamental principles, and the 
practical principles of finance and taxation, and of civil 
administration. Times of revolution are always unfavor- 
able to the growth of such ideas. When such ideas again 
control our country the Democratic party will be in power. 
It was by fidelity to them that that great party won its suc- 
cess and glory in the past. Its repossession of political 
power needs not to be long deferred, if it will but act 
wisely. Its appeal should be to the sober reason, the gen 
erous impulses, and the patriotism of the people. No 
party in this country has anything to gain by unkindness, 
intolerance, or proscription, but the contrary. By appeal- 
ing to such agencies bad men may for a time prolong 
their hold upon power ; but their ultimate overthrow will 
only be the more complete. No party can indefinitely re- 
tain power in this country that does not deserve it. In 
this category is the party now dominating over our coun- 
try. The political instincts and moral intelligence of the 
people are sure, sooner or later, to detect its inherent 
vices. The ruling party for the future must be a party for 
reform, true and honest, and not controlled by mere 
time-serving and self-seeking politicians, without states- 
manship, fixed principles, or sound policy. 

It is fortunate for the country that the great State of 
New York is in a position to contribute so much, by ex- 
ample and otherwise, to general reform, and it is to be 
hoped that her opportunities will be improved to the 
utmost degree. It is also auspicious for the country and 



Celebraiio7t, 1870. 85 

New York that her present chief magistrate illustrates 
such a high order of statesmanship, of moral courage 
and personal purity. 

Hoping that your celebration of the Fourth may be 
pleasant to yourselves and promotive of the general wel- 
fare, and thanking you for your courtesy towards me, 
I am, with great respect, your friend, 

M. C. Kerr. 



FROM SENATOR THOMAS F. BAYARD, OF DELAWARE. 

Washington, July 2, 1870. 

Hon. A. Oakey Hall, Chairman of Tammany Com- 
mittee : 

Dear Sir : I beg to thank you for your invitation to 
join in the celebration by your venerable Society of the 
anniversary of the independence of the thirteen Ameri- 
can colonies from British rule, but the refusal of the 
Senate to adjourn compels my presence here. 

The men of that day were urged to their action by mis- 
government, but there was no misrule or alleged wrong 
by the King of Great Britain, which has not been count- 
lessly repeated and intensified by the Radical party who 
have ruled the United States since 1861, regardless of 
the constitutional rights of the minority, and of all writ- 
ten and unwritten law. 

If the spirit which animated the men of 1776 will but 
possess us, their descendants, in the approaching canvass, 
constitutional liberty will be once more a burning and a 
living reality — not the poor shadow of a name, to which 
Radical rule has reduced it. 

To-day an American citizen looks wearily out from 
between the iron bars of a subterranean dungeon upon 
the foundation stones of the Capitol of the United States. 



86 Tammany Society. 

He is there imprisoned by an American House of Re- 
presentatives for an alleged breach of the peace, com- 
mitted in the streets of Richmond, in Virginia, on a 
person who happens to be a member of the present Con- 
gress. He has been dragged two hundred miles from 
his home and family, and, without writ, bail-piece, or trial, 
immured for a pretended breach of the privileges of the 
House of Representatives. What was a halfpenny tax 
on tea, or stamps on paper, to such a monstrous assump- 
tion of power to arrest, transport, and imprison an 
American citizen, regardless of the writ of habeas corpus^ 
without public hearing or trial ? In the darkest chapters 
of the Venetian history alone can its parallel be found. 
When the freemen of New York meet on July 4, 1870, 
to rejoice in their liberty, let not poor Patrick Woods be 
forgotten ; let his case be theirs, and let them speak as 
the men would have spoken whose action of ninety-four 
years ago they now meet to commemorate and glorify. 
Our fathers declared among their justifications for revolt 
against the King of Great Britain, his crime of " trans- 
porting us beyond the seas to be tried for pretended 
offences" and so to-day in the national Capitol, in the 
very citadel of our Government, there languishes an 
American citizen, transported " for a pretended offence" 
by violence from the State whose laws alone were trans- 
gressed by one of her own citizens, and to whose laws 
alone he was accountable for his act. If this case be not 
a fitting cause for popular indignation, I know not any 
theme that can arouse that spirit of 1776 which our 
people affect to admire and profess to imitate. 
Respectfully, your fellow-citizen, 

T. F. Bayard. 



Celebration, 1870. 87 

THE HON. AMASA J. PARKER, OF NEW YORK. 

Albany, July 2, 1870. 

Gentlemen : The heart of the nation, so long oppress- 
ed by a continuance of misrule and of usurped military 
power, beats in prompt response to the patriotic senti- 
ments expressed in your letter of invitation, and rejoices 
at the prospect of deliverance. 

The people long for a restoration of constitutional 
government, and for relief from needless and oppressive 
taxation. It is gratifying to know that our own great 
State is leading the way in the march towards such a 
change, and to believe that the time is near at hand when 
the true principles of Democracy shall again prevail in 
the nation. 

When that time shall come, and we shall look back 
upon the dark days of the republic in its cruel reign of 
terror, depend upon it there will be an almost universal 
feeling of gratitude felt towards your own city, which 
stood unmoved when all around it yielded to the storm. 
And especially will the people be grateful to your own 
ancient Society, whose bright council-fires have never 
ceased to be a beacon light to those in the surrounding 
darkness. 

Accept my thanks for your invitation, which I regret 
I am unable to accept, and believe me, 

Very truly yours, &c., &c. 

Amasa J. Parker. 
Hon. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem, and other Sachems, 

&c.. &c. 



the hon. s. j. randall, of pennsylvania. 

Washington, D. C, 7«/k 2. 1870. 
Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem, &c. 

Dear Sir : I am in receipt of the invitation of the 
Tammany Society to be present on the 4th instant and 



88 Tammany Society. 

join in their celebration of the anniversary of American 
independence. You will please convey to the members 
my appreciation of their politeness. I much regret that 
public duties will prevent my acceptance. 

I am, sir, yours very respectfully, 

Sam. J. Randall. 



THE HON. JOHN D. STILES, OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

Washington, D. C, June 27, 1870. 
Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem Tammany Society : 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of 
an invitation to attend the celebration of your Society on 
the Fourth of July. Congress having passed a resolution 
to adjourn on the 15th proximo, the minority should re- 
main at their posts to the last hour. All kinds of ini- 
quitous legislation will be attempted the last hours of the 
session, and I am compelled, therefore, from a sense of 
duty to decline your kind invitation. I beg to add that 
I fully concur in all that is contained in your admirable 
letter. 

The Radical party have failed to restore the Union — 
failed to restore confidence ; and there will be no substan- 
tial peace in this Union until the Democratic party shall 
again assume control of affairs. It would seem to us that 
the present Congress has done enough to insure to us a 
triumphant victory. The weakness of the administra- 
tion, the corruption in all the departments of the govern- 
ment, ought to be sufficient to damn forever Radicalism 
and Radical rule. Wisdom in our councils, prudence in 
our nominations, judgment in our platforms, care in the 
presentation of the issues of the hour, will surely bring 



Celebration^ 1870. 89 

victory to our efforts to restore peace to a distracted, tax- 
ridden, and suffering people. I submit the followinc^ : 

The Democracy of New York — Always true. 

Hastily, your obedient servant, 

John D. Stiles. 



THE HON. VV. E. NIBLACK, OF INDIANA. 

Washington City, D. C, July i, 1870. 
My dear Sir : I have had the honor of receiving an 
invitation to meet with the Tammany Society on the 4th 
inst., and unite with them in celebrating the ninety- 
fourth anniversary of American independence. I feel 
highly honored by this invitation, and would take great 
pleasure in accepting it if I were able to do so. I regret, 
however, to have to say that a previous engagement for 
that day will prevent me from accepting the invitation 
with which you have thus honored me. Trusting that the 
proposed celebration will be in every respect an interest- 
ing and successful one, 

I remain most respectfully yours, 

W. E. NiBLACK. 

William M. Tweed, Esq., (irand Sachem. 



THE HON. JOSEPH WARREN, OF BUFFALO. 

Daily Courier Office, June 28, 1870. 
My DEAR Sir : I regret that other engagements will 
prevent the acceptance of the invitation of "The Tam- 
many Society " to participate in the celebration of the 
coming Fourth of July. The circular letter with which 
Tammany prefaces her invitation should be read by every 
Democrat in the land. It not only points out clearly the 
perils which the country has escaped, but gives encour- 
agement for the future The experience of the arbitrary 
exercise of power has wedded the American people more 

13 



90 Tammany Society. 

firmly than ever before to constitutional government. 
The principles of which Tammany has been for so many 
years the advocate and defender will soon receive the re- 
indorsement of the country. 

Sincerely yours, 

Joseph Warren. 
To Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, New York Citv. 



FROM EDWIN CROSWELL. 

348 Lexington Ave., Jime 30, 1870. 
To the Tammany Society : 

Gentlemen : Ill-health will deprive me of the pleasure 
of a personal participation in the festivities and patriotic 
proceedings of your anniversary commemoration on the 
4th. But it cannot prevent my enjoyment, in a mutual 
spirit, of the feelings and hopes which hallow the day 
and the occasion. Nor can it diminish my admiration of 
the high position in which the Tammany Society stands 
before the country as the exponent of the principles of 
civil liberty — as the defender of the Constitution — as a 
shield against legislative corruption and cupidity, whether 
at Washington or Albany — as the opponent of monopoly 
and the class selfishness of designing men — as a protec 
tion against excessive and oppressive taxation — as study- 
ing and urging economy in the public expenditure — as 
looking with a single eye to the public welfare, regardless 
of interested rings and combinations — and as ever mani- 
festing a loyal and earnest defence of the country, the 
Union, and the sacred rights of the people and the States. 
Pursuing its onward career in this spirit, and with such 
aims, it will confer honor, dignity, and success alike upon 
the organization and upon the patriot cause to which its 
energies are devoted, and will be a resistless power in 
effecting the great consummation to which you propheti- 



Celebrationis 1870. 91 

cally allude, " a restoration, in all its completeness, of our 
S^ood old Government, under ivhich the people and the States 
may again enjoy their rights^ 

Very respectfully, your fellow-citizen, 

Edwin Croswell. 



FROM W. B. LAWRENCE. 

OcHEK Point, Newport, R. I. 
7?/;/ 6' 30, 1870. 

Dear Sir : I feel greatly honored by the invitation 
to participate in the celebration by the Tammany So- 
ciety of the approaching anniversary of American In- 
dependence. Though unavoidably prevented from taking 
part personally in the proposed ceremonies, I should re- 
gret to have it inferred from my absence that I am insen- 
sible to the importance of the present political crisis. 

The system of local governments, for all internal mat- 
ters, is coeval with the very colonization of the country. 
It existed while we were dependencies of England, and 
scarcely any changes were necessary to adapt, at the 
Revolution, the then existing institutions to the new con- 
ditions of things. Our revolutionary fathers, in adopting 
the present Federal Constitution, supposed that they had 
established a system which, confining the general gov- 
ernment mainly to the administration of our foreign rela- 
tions, left each individual State in the full enjoyment of 
its independence for local legislation and internal police. 

Though owing to acts, consummated by the usurpation 
of successive Congresses, claiming to legislate for the 
whole Union, though only composed of sectional represen- 
tatives, it may be too late to restore our institutions to 
the condition in which they were before the civil war, it 
is consoling to believe that much may yet be done to pre- 
vent the total extinction of State autonomy and the per- 
manent establishment of a centralized despotism. 



92 Tammany Society. 

The attempts at secession, unjustifiable as they were, 
afforded no excuse for any interference with local insti- 
tutions, nor could their failure give to Congress any power 
over the State not defined in the Federal Constitution. 
The contest, indeed, was not between individual States 
and the general government, but a civil war in which 
the Federal and Confederate Governments were the re- 
spective parties. The State functionaries were com- 
pelled not only by a force which they could not resist, to 
obey the de facto government as long as it continued in 
power ; but, in common with all the other inhabitants of 
the seceding States, by the clearly recognized principles 
of the English common law, as well as of the law of na- 
tions, it was their duty so to do. 

The usurpation of the Federal Congress in remodelling, 
through the instrumentality of military satraps and con- 
ventions (the constituency of which it prescribed, ex- 
cluding the intelligence of the country, the local organic 
laws, operated a total change in the relations between the 
States and Federal Government, as was before under- 
stood ; while the case to which your note alludes, re- 
manding to military government a State whose autonomy 
antedates the independence of the United States, and 
whose officers, chosen under the congressional system, 
had already been recognized by the Federal Executive, 
would imply that the last shadow of State independence 
had passed away. What is to-day the fate of Georgia 
may to-morrow be that of Rhode Island, and even your 
great Empire State has no longer any guarantee for the 
maintenance of its special institutions. 

The recent amendments of the Federal Constitution, 
if the acts so termed, obtained from the remodelled 
States under coercion and as a condition precedent to their 
recognition, and which by declaring that Congress shall 
have unlimited authority to enforce their provisions, by 



Celebration^ 1870. 93 

what they deem appropriate legislation, would seem to 
render useless all State organizations ; but though it may 
not be competent to disregard the Fifteenth Amendment, 
it will be in the power of a Democratic Congress to render 
it comparatively harmless, by the abrogation of the laws 
which you so justly stigmatized, passed to carry it into 
effect. 

As the Congress of the Union legislates for the North 
as well as the South, we all have an interest in the char- 
acter of the constituency which elects the Representa- 
tives, and the State legislatures by whom the Senators 
are chosen. Recognizing universal negro suffrage as an 
accomplished fact, it is certainly of interest to the country 
at large that the scope of selection should be as extended 
as possible, and that the newly enfranchised electors 
should not be driven by the proscription of the educated 
classes, of whose character and intelligence they have 
had a life-long experience, to choose as their Represen- 
tatives northern adventurers who have no other object in 
their political aspirations than to turn their Congressional 
patronage to the greatest pecuniary results. To subject 
to disabilities, after the extinction of the Confederacy, 
those who took part in the civil war, is a palpable violation 
of the laws of nations, while as applied to the prom- 
inent men of the South it is a policy injurious to the 
general interests of the whole country. 

In nothing does the conduct of the present dominant 
faction more resemble that of the old Federal party in the 
time of the elder Adams, than in the proscription of for- 
eign-born citizens. One of the first acts of the Congress 
which came in with Mr. Jefferson, was the repeal of a law 
which imposed such a probationary term as to render 
naturalization in most cases impracticable. The move- 
ments of the present session, having an immediate bear- 
ing on the New York elections, were the more offensive 



94 Tammany Society. 

to European emigrants, who are doing so much to obviate 
the effects of our internecine contest, as being introduced 
contemporaneously with laws to secure the fullest negro 
vote. And in this connection I may perhaps be excused 
in bringing to the notice of their brother Democrats else- 
where the anomalous position of the naturalized citizens 
of my own State. To the peculiar provision in the Con- 
stitution of Rhode Island, which demands a freehold 
qualification from naturalized citizens not required from 
others, are we to ascribe the ascendency here of the so- 
called Republican party. A distinction other than that 
made in the Federal Constitution, in reference to the 
Presidency, and the probationary term in the case of 
Senators and Representatives, has ever been held by 
our best lawyers as opposed to the letter as well as to the 
spirit of the article which confides to Congress the power 
to pass naturalization laws. Hitherto, however, there 
have been practical difficulties which have prevented the 
assertion of the naturalized citizen's rights. The appli- 
cation in Rhode Island of the principle of equality in 
the elective suffrage of all citizens, which it was the pro- 
posed object of the Fifteenth Amendment and of the re- 
cent act of Congress to establish, would effect a total 
revolution in the political character of the State, and se- 
cure for the Democratic party hereafter the entire Con- 
gressional representation. In order, however, to main- 
tain Radical ascendency, the Judiciary Committee of the 
United States Senate, forestalling the decision of the 
Courts, have presented a report which denies to the na- 
turalized citizens of this State the benefit of the constitu- 
tional amendment, which they avow to have been adopted 
for the exclusive advantage of the negro. 

There are other issues of high national concern involv- 
ed in the approaching elections, to which I cannot refrain 
from referring. There is no excuse for continuing, in 



Celebration^ 1870. 95 

time of profound peace, the exceptional taxes imposed in 
war. A judicious application of the surplus revenue would 
long since, by the confidence which the resumption of 
specie payments would have inspired abroad, have en- 
abled us to reduce by one-third the interest on the public 
debt, and proportionally to dispense with those excise du- 
ties, always offensive to the producing classes ; while the 
abrogation of the protective system, repudiated alike by 
England and by the enlightened policy of the Emperor of 
the French, would relieve the consumers, who embrace 
the entire population, from paying for the necessaries of 
life three times their cost in every other country of the 
civilized world. 

Our foreign relations, including the various questions to 
which our exceptional position in reference to Cuba has 
given rise, present many subjects of legitimate criticism in 
connection with the administration of our national affairs. 
The limits of this note do not, however, admit of their 
discussion. 

I am, dear sir, with great respect. 

Your obedient servant, 

W. B. Lawrence. 

Hon. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem, &c., &c. 



Washington, Jttly 2, 1870. 
To the Hon. A. Oakey Hall: 

The Senate of the United States having refused to ad- 
journ over, I find myself unable to be with you at Tam- 
many on the Fourth, and obliged to forego the grateful 
duty of joining with the braves in the thankful remem- 
brance of the anniversary of our National Independence. 
But whatever business engages the attention of the Sen- 
ate on that day, I shall nevertheless recall with pleasure 
the last anniversary I spent at Tammany. I congratulate 



g6 Tammany Society. 

you sincerely on the bright prospect which is now open- 
ing before us. The lessons which have been taught by 
your Society, and the truths which have been dissemi- 
nated therefrom, have not fallen on barren soil, but have 
grown steadily, though slowly, until they are now almost 
ready for the harvest. Again I congratulate you that 
Sachem Casserly is with you to bear a greeting and God- 
speed from our little band in the Senate. 
I am very sincerely, 

Your obedient servant, 

John P. Stockton. 



Phila., June 28, 1870. 

Dear Sir : Engagements here will prevent my uniting 
with Tammany Society, as you have kindly invited me, 
in celebrating " the coming Fourth of July." 

Devoted to the great principles of constitutional gov- 
ernment as your Society ever has been, and is now, I beg, 
in testimony of my faith in the same principles, to ask 
you to accept the following sentiment : — 

The living, the eternal principles of Democratic Constitutional Govern- 
ment can never produce "dead issues. '''' 

Faithfully yours, 

Richard Vaux. 
To the Honorable William M. Tweed, &c., &c., New York. 



Syracuse, July i, 1870. 
Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem Tammany Society, 

New York : 

Dear Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge your 
invitation to participate with your most patriotic Society 
on the coming 4th of July. Permit me to thank you for 



Celebration, 1870. 97 

this remembrance, while I with great reluctance decline 
the promise of so much pleasure and profit. 

Ninety-four years ago the Fourth of July, our fore- 
fathers solemnly dissolved all political connection with 
the Parliament of Great Britain, and declared the colonies 
to be free and independent States, for the object of secur- 
ing the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness 
for themselves and their posterity. 

After a bloody contest of eight years, in which savage 
tribes and mercenaries from Europe were arrayed against 
the weak confederation, which was conducted without 
money and without credit, marked by hardship, privation, 
and want, the treason of Arnold, the dark days at Valley 
Forge, and checkered by many defeats and disasters, our 
independence was reluctantly acknowledged. 

Four years were consumed in devising the plan of pre- 
serving and transmitting the priceless legacy of liberty. 
A gigantic intellectual war raged over the whole country 
without cessation until the ratification of the work of the 
convention by the thirteenth State. In view of the ex- 
hausted and complicated state of the colonies at the ter- 
mination of the war, in view of the conflict of interests 
and religions, and finally, in view of the ambitious jealou- 
sies and risks of foreign intrigue, I believe the Constitu- 
tion was the best that could have been drafted under the 
circumstances. 

The Constitution nowhere recognizes secession, as held 
by Mr. Greeley and others in i860. " We, the people of 
the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, 
establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for 
the common defence, promote the general welfare, and 
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos- 
terity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the 
United States of America." From this preamble the/^r 
feet union is defined as the United States by the people 
13 



98 Tammany Society. 

of the United States. No divided or imperfect union is 
possible. 

The Constitution says — " The United States shall 
guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican 
form of government." It will clearly be the duty of the 
Judiciary to review and pass on the so-called Congres- 
sional Military Reconstruction Acts, when the obstruc- 
tions are removed, and of the people to accept such 
decisions cheerfully and in good faith. 

The framers had the benefits of all the charters from 
Henry I., Magna Charta, etc., and embodied all that 
seemed best in the fundamental law. 

Its crowning glories are the system of local self-govern- 
ment, equality before the law for the whole people, trial 
by jury, and the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. 

i860. 

Seventy-one years after the opening of the first Con- 
gress, more than three millions of square miles had been 
added to the domain, extending from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific. Our exports had reached 1^400,000,000, while the 
imports amounted to $360,000,000. The places of wor- 
ship numbered 50,000 ; colleges, academies, and private 
schools 6,350, while common schools reached as high as 
81,000. Taxes hardly known, out of debt, and the country 
teeming with wealth. Under this Constitution, with all 
the advantages and ills of slavery, the United States had 
attained the head of the nations in general intelligence and 
religious culture, variety of productions, systems of com- 
municating, commercial marine, military and naval power. 

Five years of rebellion ensue, unparalleled for valor, 
courage, patience, loss of life, suffering, privation, waste, 
ruin, destruction, etc., on both parts. On one side the 
wreck was general, and attended with the loss of the bulk 
of property, in addition to the slaves. 



Celebration, 1870. 99 

Ere the last shot had fallen, the patriot Lincoln, who 
loved the Union, and who said the sin of slavery belonged 
to all the people equally, presented his plan of recon- 
struction in the spirit of that solemn pledge made by 
Congress in 1861. While the honor of the United States 
demanded this plan, it was a noble inspiration of philan- 
thropy, worthy of a powerful nation in its dealings with an 
exhausted and crushed minority of the same flesh and blood. 

In consequence of the unwise abandonment of this 
policy, which all parties accepted, the intervening period 
has been one of unrest, distrust, and apprehension in all 
sections ; at the South it is safe to say that the punish- 
ment upon the survivors, women and children, has been 
nearly as great as during the Rebellion. 

Constitution in 1870. 

The Constitution in certain quarters is a byword of 
reproach, is hissed at and spit upon. Again it is styled a 
league with the devil and a covenant with hell. Some 
declare it the work of old fogies ignorant of the needs of 
the people. It is being gradually excluded from schools 
by the classes who are remodelling school literature, to 
the end of supplanting the patriotic truths of Washing- 
ton, Adams, Henry, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Web- 
ster, Clay, etc., by inferior matter. 

At last the reaction has begun in earnest New York, 
Connecticut. New Jersey, California, Oregon, etc., have 
spoken in thunder tones. It is hoped that, one by one, 
their sister States will wheel into the army of the Con- 
stitution. 

The Tammany Society has ever been on the side of 
law and order, and her devotion to the Constitution is 
proverbial 

I am very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

John J. Peck. 



lOo Tammany Society. 

Buffalo, July 2, 1870. 
Hon. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem Tammany- 
Society : 

Sir : I have received your invitation to the Tammany 
celebration of the 4th July. I fully sympathize with the 
principles and purposes of your organization as announced 
by you in your letter. I will not withhold the expression 
of my gratification to find among them the unequivocal 
announcement that in State politics the canals here- 
after should be administered for their true purpose 
of affording to the grain-growers of the Western States 
cheap transportation to great markets, and to our own 
people abundant supplies of cheap food. This noble 
sentiment is in accordance with the dictates of purest 
philanthropy, and the soundest principles in political 
economy. In the preamble to the act of the Legislature 
inaugurating the construction of the Erie Canal, similar 
patriotic sentiments were expressed, and that the object 
in construction of that great work was to promote indus- 
try, consolidate the Union, and that it was the incum- 
bent duty of the people of this State to avail themselves 
of the means which the Almighty has placed in their 
hands for the production of such signal and extensive 
blessings to the human race. It is well known in canal 
history that the founders of our canal system intended to 
make a free canal, but failing to secure national aid they 
were obliged to impose tolls for cost of construction ; and 
it is also well understood in railway circles that the Erie 
Canal, during the season of navigation, regulates the 
rate of the freight tariffs over all the carrying systems in 
the North, so that our people residing in any part of the 
State are equally benefited by cheap transportation over 
our canals. The Legislature of our State, at its recent 
session, guided by the wisdom and patriotism of the early 
statesmen of the Commonwealth, passed unanimously the 



Celebration, 1870. lOi 

so-called " Funding Bill," which is mandatory upon the 
Canal Board so to adjust tolls that the canals, in the lan- 
guage of Governor Seymour, " shall be managed here- 
after in the interest of commerce and industry, and not 
as instruments of taxation." 

Our canals have been paralyzed by the obsolete restric- 
tions of the constitution of '46. The people, after a hard- 
fought battle with the "Old Mortality" politicians of our 
State, secured a temporary removal of them until the en- 
largement of 1854 was attained ; but the lelease was 
only temporary; every progressive movement to improve 
our canals and their trade since has been impeded by a 
grip upon them as tight as the "Old Man of the Sea" 
ever placed upon poor Sindbad of " The Arabian Nights." 
The Funding Bill clears all those constitutional obstruc- 
tions from the pathway of our inland commerce. Those 
of our canal friends who have trembled for the fate of our 
free canal measure in the November election, will rejoice 
when they see the powerful Tammany organization united 
with the unanimous expression of our Legislature in its 
support. 

Canal men throughout the State will also remember 
with gratitude your support of this measure in 1869, upon 
its first introduction in the Senate, and that under the 
leadership of Speaker Hitchman, in a most powerful 
speech, it received a majority of the votes of the As- 
sembly, and that in 1870 it received the warm support of 
all the Tammany members of the Legislature in its una- 
nimous passage. The concurrence of all parties in sup- 
port of this comprehensive policy, which will enfranchise 
our canals, and save and increase their benefits to the 
people through all time, leaves no room for doubt as to 
its adoption and constitutional ratification in November. 
I remain your obedient servant, 

Israel T. Hatch. 



I02 Tammany Society. 

Elizabethtown. N. Y., July 2, 1870. 
Hon. Wm. M. Tweed and others, Sachems and Brothers 

of Tammany : 

Gentlemen : I have received your invitation to partici- 
pate in the ceremonies of your Society in the celebration 
of the Fourth of July. 

It would give me great pleasure to do so, did not other 
engagements imperatively prevent. 

The present position of the Empire State has a power- 
ful effect, politically, upon the whole country. And when 
we consider the great influence the action of Old Tam- 
many has upon the politics of our State, we can well ap- 
preciate the importance of that action upon the nation at 
large. And it follows, that an immense responsibility 
rests upon your Society. Your invitation eloquently 
states the sad condition of the country in all that pertains 
to the Federal Government, and its conduct for the last 
few years, and the evils resulting from a disregard of the 
Constitution — that fraternal bond of free States. That 
instrument not only permits, but requires, that insurrec- 
tions should be suppressed and the laws enforced ; but it 
gives no authority to reduce States to provinces, and 
subject them to military rule in time of profound peace, 
and when the laws are everywhere acknowledged as su- 
preme. 

The life of this nation will be short and its history 
melancholy indeed, if our general government is to be 
administered upon principles of force, exercised in the 
assumption of power unknown to the Constitution of the 
land. There must be a brotherhood of States, based upon 
some plain, certain, and acknowledged national compact, 
or there will be no Confederacy of Free States — no real 
Union. 

I have confidence in the Sachems and Brothers of 
Tammany — that, as true friends of this Union, they will 



Celebration^ 1870. 103 

do all in their power to place the management of our 
national affairs again upon a constitutional foundation. 

Then, indeed, will the Fourth of July be a day of uni- 
versal rejoicing, with nothing to dim its glory. 
Very respectfully, gentlemen, 

Your obedient servant, 

A. C. Hand. 



New York, June 27, 1870. 
Hon, Wm. M. Tweed : 

Dear Sir : I cordially accept the invitation of the 
Tammany Society to meet with its members on the 
Fourth of July. 

The genius of your Order has restored good govern- 
ment in the State of New York, and I hope that the aid 
and influence of your Society will enable the Democratic 
party to achieve a like victory in national politics, and 
give the Republicans a burial without a resurrection. 
With great personal respect, 
I remain very truly yours, 

Leon Abbett. 



218 Broadway, New York, June 28, 1870. 
Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem : 

Dear Sir : Having promised to deliver an address 
at Poughkeepsie on the approaching Fourth of July, I 
shall be deprived of the pleasure of accepting the invita- 
tion to take part on that day in the celebration which 
Tammany is to hold in accordance with her ancient cus- 
tom. 

Nothing but an engagement of a positive character 
could cause me to forego the pleasure of being present 
with you on that occasion. 



I04 Tammany Society. 

Please accept my thanks for the invitation, and warm- 
est wishes for the prosperity of the ancient Order over 
which you preside. I trust that Tammany, the maker of 
Presidents in the better days of the Republic, in resum- 
ing, as she is about to do, her ancient office, will restore 
the hoped-for era, not merely of good feeling, but of good 
government, and thus reopen to the nation the great 
career of material prosperity from which our steps have 
been so long diverted. 

I am very respectfully. 

Your obedient servant, 

M. T. McMahon. 



Penn Yan. June 30, 1870. 
Hon. Wm. M. Tweed : 

My dear Sir : Other engagements will prevent my 
being present to join with your ancient Order in celebrat- 
ing the coming Fourth. 

The times, in my judgment, are auspicious for the 
Democracy, and, as a consequence, for the country. We 
are slowly but surely swinging back to the old landmarks, 
and when fully restored to constitutional rights the coun- 
try will once more move on to her great and manifest 
destiny. 

I regret that I cannot unite with you in person on the 
Fourth, but my heart will be with your patriotic Society 
as they unite in honoring Independence Day. 
Yours truly, 

D. A. Ogden. 



Waldberg, July i, 1870. 
Hon William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem, &c. : 

Dear Sir : I regret that it is not in my power to accept 
the kind invitation of your Order for the 4th inst., and 



Celebration^ 1870. 105 

take part in the high festival you hold for Liberty and the 
Republic. It is a consolation, however, to think that so 
many patriotic citizens will then grace your Hall that 
some can well be spared and excused in advance. 

The Tammany Society have a proud record in the 
past. It has been the bulwark at the North of the liberty 
of person and rights of citizenship. It has been true to 
our glorious Constitution, the aegis and bond of free 
and independent sovereignties. It has ever strenuously 
advocated equal rights for States and communities, and 
been true to the interests of the industrial masses. In 
times of late peril it nobly struggled for the Union, to 
save from impending wreck government and its future, 
though in its counsels at the time it had no part. When 
the desolation had passed over our land and was spent, 
it urged the speediest return of those who had received 
amnesty to their appropriate functions in their State gov- 
ernments, and through them to their ancient allegiance 
to that of the Union. All that it could it has cheerfully 
given of aid and counsel in the rehabilitation of the old 
Democratic Government. 

But in common with the friends of free institutions 
throughout the world, it has been doomed to sorrow in 
witnessing the sacrifice of true and lasting peace as a 
sentiment and incentive to harmonious action throughout 
our borders, to the petty triumphs of scheming doctri- 
naires and political schismatics. A race, it is true, has been 
liberated from bonds ; but almost in the same breath ad- 
vanced to magistracy and the highest role of sovereignty. 
While any sort of vacillating and ever-to-be-amended legis- 
lation has been adopted to forge fetters for our own flesh 
and blood, incessant jubilees have been sounded to herald 
the advancing steps of an ignorant race, and stifle wonder 
as it gapes at the rashness of the experiment ; until at last, 
after years exhausted by a Senate in debauched prowess, 
14 



io6 Tammany Society. 

to render null the plighted faith of the Government pro- 
fessed by one executive and proclaimed by his successor, 
it boasts a Revels, the fitting finale of its orgies in re- 
construction. 

We agree that it is commendable to apportion justice to 
all, of whatever degree or ability, to do well for themselves 
or for others. But it is as gross a form of injustice to raise 
by force of law a class or race above the level they can 
maintain, as it is to commend the chalice of happiness to 
the lip and then snatch it from the draught. The direst 
issue of disappointment is despair. 

Liberty, my dear sir, lies in the equilibrium between the 
power exercised by the ruler, be he magistrate or repre- 
sentative, and the right of the citizen as subject (inherent 
in him) reserved and equably to be maintained by him. 

Every disturbance of this equipoise is simply licentious, 
engendering calamity greater or less, as the breach is 
more or less marked. And it matters not whether it 
be an adding to or taking away by men charged with the 
law-making power, of rights of sovereignty ; rights by 
prescription, pledge, charter, or contract ; rights of per- 
son, property, or labor. Any such wrong-doing, even by 
indirection, by the avoidance or destruction of existing 
unforfeited rights, is in despite of the spirit of Liberty, 
and therefore the gravest offence against the peace and 
well-being of society. 

Yet by assumption of right, and under cover of law, 
we have witnessed by constraint the perpetration of many 
such acts of political violence. 

We have seen the consent of States, untimely forced by 
partisan contrivance and amendments to our organic law, 
declared against the most plain and unmistakable refusal 
of our citizen-sovereigns, — rights of the masses in public 
lands for homesteads bartered off to land monopolists, 
filching at the same time from the public coffers, — rights 



Celebration, 1870. 107 

of all our industrial classes to fair earnings attached by 
levy of taxes extorted to swell the prodigal expenditures 
of plundering representatives and officials, — rights to con- 
stitutionally stamped coin frittered down to pictured 
paper, which its authors repudiate, while they force it upon 
every trade, — rights of commerce in a community who 
own vast seaboards on two mighty oceans transferred to 
foreigners under pretence, perchance, of keeping trim and 
ware of collisions and war with those who have stolen 
our craft, or, as some fancy wolfs milk to be good for 
sheep, of fostering home industries. 

So have we seen the paying of tribute by free and sturdy 
artisans to the pampered pets of this latest school of 
humanitarians, whose paper mills yields over two hundred 
and fifty per cent, of fat annual profits — whose iron and 
salt cost two cents of commercial for one of actual worth. 
So have we felt the stringency of public markets by vio- 
lent contractions, as Boutwell bears gold, buys bonds not 
due, and brags of reduction of debt, while for every mil- 
lion thus converted the sovereigns of the land lose in 
fluctuating markets and depressed values full a hundred 
of such millions. 

And worst shame of all for a Republic, we note repre- 
sentatives of the people in high station, placemen of all 
grades with moderate and stinted salary becoming rich, 
gorged with presents, land script, stock shares, or the pro- 
fits of investments made for them by very high-minded 
and unselfish admirers. 

All these things, ay, more, we behold on every side ; 
and amidst shouts of derision for the Constitution and 
its sanctions, and the time honored policy of these United 
States, we are welcomed to measure the strides of Con- 
gress towards centralization and consolidation of all gov- 
ernmental power, and admire its apings of the omnipo- 
tence of a British Parliament. 



'lOS Tammany Society. 

That such things can last, no one is bold enough to 
predict. When stealings are wholesale, thieves peach. 
Largesses belong to despotisms. They are not to the 
manor born in a republic. And it is a source of hope 
for a future not far distant, that the citizens of many 
States have aroused themselves from lethargy, and are 
directing their energies to affairs nearer their present 
power of control. 

In our own State the canals are free at last from break- 
making contractors, and promise cheapened transportation 
and cheaper food. The metropolis, soon to be the centre 
of the carrying trade of the world, watches the promise 
and will demand its fulfilment. The slavery of registra- 
tion taints not, at least in the rural districts, the liberty of 
the voter. The right of self-government in localities is 
no longer withheld by law. Justice in its highest form 
is to be dispensed by men trained under the old masters 
of jurisprudence. 

With such renovation in the smaller sphere, what 
may not be hoped throughout the grand constellation of 
mighty and united sovereignties } 

There remains that the people should be nerved for 
the struggle by the example and encouragement of their 
leaders in the discharge of every public duty. They 
should, as of old, exercise the fullest right, enjoy the read- 
iest facility in the choice of true men, and challenge the 
closest scrutiny of public aiTairs, even the minutest, and 
wrest the control of their conventions from wire-pulling 
officials. 

By such means alone intelligence is quickened, public 
virtue secured, and the old quiet and repose of our politi- 
cal system restored. And, as under the auspices of your 
Society much has already been accomplished, it is not the 
tone of adulation to add, that in due time it will address 
itself to what remains to be done, and fulfil the earnest 



Celebration, 1870. 109 

expectation of those who look for the coming of the old 
Democratic regime. 

Your obedient servant, 

A. B. Conger. 



Germantown, Philada Co., Jidy i, 1870. 
Hon. Wm. M. Tweed: 

Dear Sir : A previous engagement will deprive me of 
the pleasure of participating with your renowned, influ- 
ential, and ancient Tammany Society in commemorating 
on the 4th of July that " civil liberty " which is, and ever 
ought to be, " the glory of man." 

No day and no time could be more fitting to recall the 
people of the country to the perils which threaten their 
liberties. Instead of being "jealous of their liberties," 
and sleepless sentinels over most sacred trusts, they have 
slumbered and allowed their liberties to become an easy 
prey to the lusts of a rapacious crew of political bucca- 
neers, and beneath the skull and cross-bones of a pirati- 
cal majority in the Congress of the United States, "vir- 
tue, liberty, and independence" lie prostrate, bleeding, 
dying. May " old Tammany," on our coming natal day, 
prove herself the Gabriel of a glorious political resurrec- 
tion ! 

I am very truly yours, 

Chas. W. Carrigan. 



Buffalo, June 30, 1870. 
Gentlemen : It would afford me very great pleasure to 
participate with the Sachems of Tammany in the cele- 
bration of the approaching anniversary of American In- 
dependence. It will, however, be impracticable for me to 
visit New York on that day. 



I lo Tammany Society. 

Your letter of invitation recites abundant reasons for 
congratulation on the recurrence of this National festi- 
val. The clouds which of late have darkened the hori- 
zon are passing away. Having demonstrated the physi- 
cal power requisite to suppress insurrection and rebellion, 
the American people are day by day proving that they 
have the moral power and the patriotic will to restore a 
government republican in form and in spirit. New York 
has already taken her place in the front rank of States 
which may be relied upon for the preservation of the 
liberties of the people and the sacred guarantees of the 
Constitution. 

So soon as the oppressive burden of Federal taxation 
shall be lightened, and the protective tariff' give way to 
some system of revenue reform which shall encourage 
rather than cripple manufacturing enterprise, the country 
will rapidly regain its prosperity and enter upon a new 
career of material development. 

Confident that your time-honored celebration will hasten 

this new era, I remain. 

Respectfully yours, 

Wm. G. Fargo. 

To Wm. M. Tweed, ] 

A. Oakey Hall, ! Sachems, 

Peter B. Sweeny, { Committee, &c. 

Richard B. Connolly, J 



OwEGO, June 29, 1870. 
Hon. Wm. M. Tweed : 

My dear Sir : I am honored with an invitation to par- 
ticipate in the ceremonies of the Tammany Society in 
celebration of the next Fourth of July. It would give me 
great pleasure to do so, but circumstances prevent. 

Whatever has a tendency to restore civil libery to our 



Celebration, 1870. Ill 

7vhole country, to give again to it all, not merely self-gov- 
ernment, but self-government regulated and guarded by 
those wise constitutional checks and balances which the 
men of '76 saw clearly were necessary to protect the people 
in their rights, and to prevent the overthrow of self-gov- 
ernment itself, has my hearty sympathy. Believing this 
will be the object and the tendency of your celebration, 
though absent, I shall be with you in spirit and sentiment. 
Very truly and respectfully, 

John J. Taylor. 



251 Broadway, New York, 28M June, 1870. 
Hon. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem, and others 

Sachems : 

Gentlemen : I am honored by the receipt of your in- 
vitation to be present and participate in the ceremonies 
of the Tammany Society on the approaching anniver- 
sary of our " National Birthday." And I have perused 
with especial interest your able and patriotic manifesto, 
accompanying the same. 

There is no body of men so well entitled to proclaim 
the noble sentiment which you have adopted as your 
motto, " Civil Liberty the Glory of Man," as the Tam- 
many Society. 

To you justly belongs the great honor of keeping the 
Democratic party steadfast, and its position impregnable, 
during our late civil strife. 

By your wise and prudent counsel and example the 
duty of a patriotic people to fight for the preservation 
and unity of our government against enemies from with- 
out was reconciled with the equally imperative duty to 
strive for the maintenance of the Constitution and the 
supremacy of the civil authority against the intrigues of 
enemies within, though they were high in authority. 



112 Tammany Society. 

You thus struck an answering chord in every Demo- 
cratic heart, preserved our National Union, and rescued 
from the hands of its despoilers a germ of State author- 
ity which, under the wise nurture of Democratic states- 
manship, will yet grow into a hardy and comely tree of 
constitutional liberty. 

Whatever of national glory or of civil freedom we may 
enjoy in this Republic in the future, may justly be ascribed 
to the sentiment and purpose which animated your honored 
Society in the most critical hour of our national life. And 
it seems to me that a fuller exposition and better under- 
standing of your position and conduct are due to your 
organization, and would shed lustre upon the patriotism 
and the fortitude of the Democratic party. 

You have rightly judged that I sympathize with the 
ideas set forth in your letter ; and I shall feel honored to 
meet with men of like sympathy to commemorate our de- 
liverance from colonial bondage, from national disruption, 
from Radical domination in the Empire State, and from 
jnwiicipal servitude ; and also to take counsel as to the 
best mode of ridding our country of Radical misrule and 
Executive imbecility at Washington. 

I am, most respectfully and truly, 

D. C. Calvin. 



New York, 2()ih June, 1870. 
Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Present : 

Dear Sir : I have the pleasure to acknowledge re- 
ceipt of the address of the " Tammany Society," over 
which you have the honor to preside, and an invitation to 
participate in the annual ceremonies in commemoration 
of the Ninety-fourth year of our National Independence. 

Were I not compelled by prior engagements to be ab- 
sent from your city, I should esteem it no less a pleasure 



Celebration, 1870. 113 

than my duty as an American citizen to be present upon 
so important an occasion. 

The principles enunciated as those of the Association 
are cordially responded to by Union men in every section 
of our country, and have been since the foundation of 
our national government, and still continue to be, those 
of the great Democratic party whose wise legislation and 
strict adherence to constitutional law have not alone con- 
tributed, but been the source of our growth and prosperity 
as a nation. 

As a citizen of the South I am encouraged by the re- 
cent elections in Connecticut, New Jersey, California, 
Oregon, and New York to believe that the people, through- 
out the entire Union, intend to protect themselves from 
further encroachments upon their rights by the present 
Radical party. 

Fully sympathizing with you in your efforts " towards 
good government in this State," and with the hope that 
the people will find " what the experience of ninety years 
in the general politics of the country has proved, that the 
Democratic party alone of the two parties knows how to 
govern ; " and with many regrets for my inability to join 
you and other gentlemen connected with the Society, I 
subscribe myself, with great respect. 

Your obedient servant, 

John R. Conway. 



Albany, July 2, 1870. 
Dear Sir : I respect the patriotic feeling which leads 
the members of the Tammany Society to celebrate year 
by year with so much enthusiasm the anniversary of our 
national independence, and to recall attention to the his- 
tory of our Revolutionary struggle, and to the great prin- 
ciples of civil liberty recognized in the Constitution, re- 
15 



114 Tammany Society. 

cently so unwarrantably violated by our Government. 
Time and events have already shown how unwise and 
unnecessary those violations were, and the lesson they 
teach will, I trust, have a permanent influence on our 
future history. 

I am obliged by the invitation to join in your celebra- 
tion, and regret that I cannot be with you. 

Yours very respectfully, 

John V. L. Pruyn. 
Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem, New York. 



Trumansbukgh, N. Y., June 29, 1870. 
Hon. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem Tammany 
Society, New York City : 

My dear Sir : Accept of my cordial thanks for 
your invitation to meet with the Tammany Society at 
the coming celebration of the Fourth of July. Unavoid- 
able business engagements will prevent my being present 
with you on that occasion. 

You will meet under and with cheering prospects of 
better things in the near future — the future must be bet- 
ter, it cannot zvell be worse. Again thanking you, 
I am, very respectfully, 

Henry D. Barto. 



Little Falls, N. Y.. June 29, 1870, 
Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem, &c. : 

I have received the invitation to unite with the Tam- 
many Society in celebrating the coming Fourth of July. 
It will be inconvenient for me to attend. 

That great act, the Declaration of Independence, is 
most worthy of commemoration by all lovers of free in- 



Celebration, 1870. 115 

stitutions, and I know of no association that better repre- 
sents the spirit and principles which impelled our fathers 
to that Declaration, and sustained them in maintaining 
it, than Tammany Society. The times in which we live 
call for the full exercise of all its energies to sustain our 
institutions in their purity. In reviewing the course of 
our Government for nearly ten years past, one is almost 
ready to believe that our people have lost a proper appre- 
ciation of the privileges they have inherited. The ma- 
jority in the governing States have acquiesced in and sus- 
tained by their votes the centralizing influences, in spite 
of Constitution and precedent, for personal and party 
purposes which have been boldly assumed by the Gov- 
ernment under the color of loyal patriotism ; but the 
time has come, that unless our people arouse from their 
false security and arrest this progress, the result of des- 
potism will be upon us before these partisan loyalists see 
where they are drifting. In the earnest hope that the in- 
fluences of Tammany may be ever active and efficient in 
preserving the well-balanced institutions which our fa- 
thers ordained to secure our liberties, I still remain hopeful 
of our future destinies. 

With thanks for the honor of the invitation, 
I am very respectfully yours, &c., 

Arphaxad Loomis, 



Clifton. Jiine 30, 1870. 
William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem : 

Dear Sir : I thank you and your time-honored and 
patriotic Society for inviting me to participate in the cele- 
bration of the coming Fourth of July. I sincerely re- 
gret that I cannot be present on so interesting an occa- 
sion, as I deeply sympathize in your elTort to "keep the 
patriot fire burning brightly in your Council Chamber," 



1 1 6 Tammany Society. 

and hope that you may be so successful that soon that 
" patriot fire "' may illuminate the nation, so as to restore 
the good old government of our fathers, and preserv^e the 
civil liberty handed down to us by the illustrious men of 
the Revolution. In the dark days in 1864, when I was 
almost alone in this State trying to uphold the Demo- 
cratic banner, and the great principles of civil liberty, I 
turned with hope and appealed to your patriot Society to 
aid us. Nor did I appeal in vain, as you sent me cheering 
words to encourage us in the hour of our despair. 

I now again appeal to you to aid me to uphold that old 
Democratic banner emblazoned with the great truths of 
" equal rights to all, exclusive privileges to none." Civil 
and religious liberty must be preserved. In 1870, as in 
1864, almost alone in upholding that banner against the 
hordes of Radicalism on one hand, and a sectional organ- 
ization on the other, who have seized the time honored 
name of Democracy as a shield to their nefarious designs. 
I again confidently appeal to your patriotic Society, 
where the true principles of Democracy are ever kept 
burning, to aid me in the unequal struggle. With no 
press and no organization the struggle seems hopeless ; 
but I believe that when the smoke of battle shall roll oft", 
that grand old banner of Democracy will float triumphant 
in defiance of false principles. 

In furtherance of this design I would humbly suggest 
that your Society, in its coming meeting, should give dis- 
tinct utterance to the true principles of Democracy, or, 
better still, inaugurate the movement for the call of a 
National Democratic Convention, which shall authorita- 
tively place what is Democratic principle, and what shall 
be fought for by the party in all the States. Let us all 
know that Democracy is progressive as well as national. 
That it keeps step with the advancement of the nation, 
and that it is not shackled bv the dead past. Let us no 



Celebration, 1870. I17 

longer be reproached by our enemy that Democracy in 
one State is not Democracy in another. Let the Hving, 
vital principles of Democracy be triumphant everywhere 
in our broad land, from Maine to Georgia, from the At- 
lantic to the Pacific. In such a platform of principles 
the hints thrown out in your card of invitation would be 
eminently proper, to wit : 

" All questions connected with the late civil war are 
properly at an end the war has settled them. 

"The sacred right of a man to personal freedom as 
long as he violates no law. 

" Faith in popular freedom. 

" Necessity the plea and weakness of tyrants, not of 
constitutional rulers. 

" If it was wise and proper to punish citizens of the 
South, it should have been done at once at the close of 
the war, and that punishment having been administered, 
the restoration of the old form of government, all over 
the country, should have been prompt and complete." 

To which I would suggest : 

" The freedom of elections must be preserved. 

" The military must be subordinate to the civil au- 
thorities. 

" The national faith must be preserved — no repudiation. 

" A free invitation to the oppressed of all nations to 
become citizens of our great country ; but they must come 
free and unshackled, not used by capital to the detriment 
of American laborers. 

'•A tariff for revenue, with protection as an incident. 

" The army must not be permitted to overawe by its 
presence the votes of the people. 

" The rights of communities to local self-government 
must be recognized. 

" General amnesty," and, to use your own words, " To 
re-establish, in all its completeness, the old Government." 



1 1 8 Tammany Society. 

A sound currency and many other things might be 
added, but it is not necessary. 

What we want most is an authoritative and definite ut- 
terance of what Democratic principle is, and what should 
be the law of the Demoracy in every State 

I agree with you, " There is, therefore, cheering ground 
for hope of better things."' I have never despaired of the 
future of the American Republic. 

I believe the people will ultimately burst like gossamer 
thread the Lilliputian shackles bound round their limbs by 
those who have no confidence in popular government. 
When they do awaken they will arise with a shout that 
will almost startle the dead, and they will break down 
and crush all under foot who will stand in the way of a 
complete restoration of the old Government. Let us in- 
voke the blessing of Him " who holds the destiny of na- 
tions in the hollow of His hand,"" that He may grant that 
when your Society shall celebrate the looth year of the 
anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, or even 
sooner, that the government of the people shall be a de- 
cided success and that a cluster of free and equal States 
may cover our broad realm, and that the Constitution 
may be the paramount law of the land. 

Very respectfully, 

RicH.^RD T. Jacob. 



No. I02 Broadway, New York, July i, 1870. 
Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem : 

Dear Sir : Accept my thanks for your kind invitation 
to unite with the Tammany Society in their approaching 
celebration. Sympathizing fully with its objects, I regret 
that absence from the city on the 4th instant will debar 
me from the pleasure of being with you. 

Yours truly, 

Wm. H. Ludlow. 



Celebration, 1870. 1 19 

Hudson, July 2, 1870. 
Hon. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem : 

Dear Sir : The invitation to meet with the Tammany- 
Society, to celebrate the approaching anniversary of our 
National Independence, was duly received. 

Sympathizing with the great principles of human free- 
dom which it has been the great aim and object of your 
Order to propagate and maintain, it would give me great 
satisfaction to be present upon this interesting occasion. 
I regret, however, that official engagements elsewhere will 
deprive me of this pleasure. 

With great respect, I am yours, etc., 

Theodore Miller. 



Saugerties. N. Y., Jjine 28, 1870. 
Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem Tammany Society, 
etc. 

Dear Sir : I am in receipt of your kind invitation on 
behalf of your time-honored Society to attend your custom- 
ary meeting at the " Great Wigwam," on the 4th of July, 
to commemorate our once great national holiday. I 
most sincerely thank you for the invitation, and assure 
you I would be most happy to meet the Sachems and in- 
vited guests on that occasion, but previous engagements 
will prevent my attendance. 

You will please make my regrets to your associates, and 
believe me, 

I am most respectfully. 

Your obedient servant, 

Wm. F. Russell. 



1 20 Tamma?iy Society. 

Albany, June 29, 1870. 
Sir : I am honored by the invitation to be present 
with the Tammany Society at their celebration of the 
Fourth of July. 

I wish it were in my power to accept the same ; but it 
will be impossible for me to be in New York on that day. 
With thanks for your kindness, 

I am very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

Jno. D. Van Buken. 

Hon. William M. Tweed, New York City. 



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